Protector of Loyalty
by Sharkey52
Summary: *Sequel to Protector of Silence*. Decades have passed since Operation Brighton, and it's time for a new generation to step forward. Summer's wanted to be a ranger all her life - with her parentage, what else would she ever want to be? She has a great legacy to follow, but unanswered questions in her life are back to haunt her, Oblivia and perhaps even the ones she loves the most.
1. Return to Oblivia

**My dear and loyal readers! Welcome back to the universe Sharkey52 has created within the Pokémon world where psychic beings walk the earth (in fear mostly), Almia and Fiore once had a really big war, people you think are dead aren't (instead they crack jokes in pointless filler chapters and quote the limited TV shows and movies this author watches) and it is possible to have white pupils if you've got a piece of another dimension instead your head, hence giving you awesome superpowers that usually get you killed (hence the psychic beings living in fear bit). Wahoo!**

**So, some quick info before we begin. This story is set somewhere in the range of about 25 years after Protector of Silence. I know, wow, time-skip and all that. But all shall make sense eventually. That puts Kellyn and at gang at about 36 or so, so obviously they won't be the main characters, but they're still pretty important as you will see. Also, this means the Murph referred to in this story is actually called Murph Imachi Jr - son of the Murph from Holiday Spirit and the original Pokémon Ranger game - and he's in training to become PR to the Ranger Union like his dad. The old Murph will typically be referred to as 'Uncle Imachi' or sometimes 'Uncle Murph' by our main characters, just to clear that up. Also, this story is set at about two-and-a-half years after the game 'Guardian Signs' - in other words, Guardian Signs took place in the July and this story takes place two years later in the January. Okay?**

**A quick warning though. For a few of the chapters I've written at least in part, Ben may act very differently to how he normally does in my other fics. However, he does have a good reason for this that shall be explained eventually.**

**So, one last thank you to all my readers out there who have stuck with this series, and I hope you enjoy this pilot chapter.**

* * *

**"Now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."**

**"Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"**

* * *

For Emzie - Protector of Silence's biggest fan and my total writing support. This one's for you.

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter One - Return to Oblivia**

It was only mid-morning in the middle of January, but Summer found herself wishing she'd remembered to pack her sun cream anyway. She shaded her eyes from the sun as she strode out onto the deck of the Union, her eyes meeting nothing but endless ocean over the railing. Raising her arms above her head and arching her back into a stretch, she let her bare feet touch the wooden deck, wincing slightly at the heat already, and peered out towards the front of the boat.

Ah, there he was.

Clad in a pair of shorts, a T- shirt and a pair of sandals as well as a pair of ("epic") sunglasses, her parter was leant on the wooden railing at the front of the boat, a puzzle book and a pencil in his hands.

"Hey Ben-Ben" she smiled, leaning against the railing beside him, ignoring the slight burning sensation on her arms as her tank top failed to protect them. Like Ben, she'd forsaken her uniform for now as they were officially in international waters.

"Good morning Summer" Ben just put on a small smile that was code for 'really happy to see you and all that, but I only got a few hours sleep and my head hurts from the spiked punch at our goodbye party, so I'm just not in the mood to be over-excitable right now'. He tapped his chin twice with the rubber end of his pencil. "Nope, still no good nicknames for that."

Summer shoved his shoulder, coaxing a laugh out of both of them. "Did you get any sleep?"

"Two hours" Ben clarified, directing his gaze down to his almost completed word search. "Your dad's voice screeching 'Don't Stop Believing' is forever stuck in my poor pounding head."

Summer winced, trying to block the mental images from her head. She'd never, never forgive her dad for that stunt. "I dunno, I think Uncle Imachi and Mr and Mr Pemberton's routine of 'I'm Sexy and I Know It' was worse." Now she tried to block the images of her one of her best friend's dad and Freddie and Julian Pemberton's horrific semi-drunk routine (except Freddie - he was definitely drunk, probably getting close to the 'trashed' mark). "Honestly, there were kids at that party! Murph's gonna be stuck with those images of his dad in his head forever!"

"I think they were making up for the lack of drunken acts at New Years" Ben pitched in "You know, terrible blizzards in the north and all that - lack of party and karaoke. Not to mention the lack of a bad blood-alcohol level."

"Maybe, but couldn't they have waited until we'd left?" Summer sighed, leaning on the railing even more now as she looped one foot around her other ankle.

"Sorta nulls the point of it being a '_Goodbye_ Party'" Ben pointed out, turning the page on his word search as he finished it and moving onto a sudoku.

"True" Summer pulled a face and nodded. She leaned forward a bit and looked past Ben at the miles and miles of nothing but pure ocean stretching before them. "Risking sounding like a child, how long do we have before we get there?"

"You're fourteen - you're still a child" Ben answered, ignoring Summer's adorable pout at that comment. "And the last I heard from Murph it was another eight hours."

"What?! Oh c'mon!" Summer whined "We left at, like, _midnight_ last night!"

"Yeah, and we had to stop three times to let passengers on and off so we and Murph are the only ones left now" Ben pointed out "And close your mouth because I'll remind you again now when you're not about to fall asleep - we had to deliver passengers to Fiore, Kanto and Unova because Murph wants to get to the next level of his PR training before he turns sixteen this May - which you have no doubt forgotten - and that includes assisting members of the public. So he can now check that off his list of stuff to do."

"But why must it take so long?!" Summer complained on "It only takes, like, three or four hours on a Staraptor or Latias!"

"I'm sure my partner Pokémon will be flattered when she wakes up and I tell her" Ben's smile grew slightly "And as an official Aerial Ranger I do know this for certain, it's faster travelling by bird Pokémon because they're faster than boats at top speed and we can take a shortcut over Jhoto and Kanto by air. Boats have to go around land and avoid storms and rough seas and all sorts, so the Union will get there slower without any doubt whatsoever."

"Okay, looks like your new badge has added a few brain cells to your head" Summer smirked, joking gesturing to Ben's new Aerial Ranger badge pinned to his t-shirt. "But seriously, this boat ride feels slower than the original journey. And that takes something!"

"Are you referring to the fact we got lost over Hoenn that time, or when we lost the map near the end and you had to use your freaky psychic 'I can talk to Pokémon and apparently ask them for directions' thing on some Wingulls?" Ben asked, craning his neck back as he thought about that important point in their lives. "Arceus, has it really been two years since then? We were just kids. Little kids."

"Time flies huh. I can't wait to see Nema and Pichu and everyone again" Summer stretched, arching her back and raising her arms above her head for the second time. She cricked her shoulder and wondered if she'd lain funny or something.

"Yeah, but it was great to go home for the holidays" Ben pointed out "It gets boring singing Auld Lang Syne with Rand _every_ New Years."

"You only had to do it once - it's not Rand's fault he can't sing" Summer pointed out, a grin on her face as she poked Ben on the arm, tempting a bigger smile out of her partner. "But you're right for once, it was great to spend Hanukkah with Mum and Dad again."

"Seriously, why do you insist on not calling it Christmas?" Ben gave her a strange look, as if this was a question that had been puzzling him for a long time. "I mean, you're not religious - you never went to Jew church."

"It's called a synagogue and I went there once for the world's shortest Bat Mitzvah ever. Seriously, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records" Summer explained, inwardly wincing for the third or fourth time that day as she remembered having to run without her uniform to her next urgent mission the second the ceremony was over, ripping her clothes and loosing one of her shoes in the process. "And it's habit more than anything. My dad was raised in that faith, but he still calls it Christmas around his colleagues at the Ranger Union. And my mum just said she liked the sound of Hanukkah better." Summer shot her partner a teasing look. "Legend has it, it was the second foreign word my dad learnt after crêpes. It took him, like, _years_ to start saying words longer than three syllables. Said they were too long to be practical or something."

"Yeah but so did you" Ben reminded her "It took you until you were, like, _six _to say a word." His face then twisted into a smirk. "Problem is, since then, you've never _stopped_ talking."

Accompanied by a mock gasp of hurt, Summer slapped him on the arm. "Watch it Mister! Point is, now Hanukkah is over and now I get to spend the rest of the year with the only significant other I need in my life in my most favourite place in the world."

"Aww" Ben grinned, looking flattered, sliding his sunglasses up onto his forehead so he could look Summer brown-eye to green-eye. "I'm touched my 'only significant other I need in my life'."

Summer grinned back and gave him a brief but tight hug around the shoulders (noting the fact he appeared to have put on a little weight over the two weeks they were apart and saving it in the back of her mind for future blackmail) and rested her head on his shoulder just in time for a cloud to shift and for the sun to come beating down on them once again. Summer hastily shaded her eyes from the intense light. "Favourite place in the world maybe, but why is it whenever we come here, it's always so hot you could fry an egg on a Pokédollar?"

"Well it could be worse" Ben pointed out, returning to his puzzle "It could be like home was."

Summer raised an eyebrow. She'd spent most of her holiday at her home in Chicole Village; Ben's parents now lived in Pueltown, so they'd spent most of the holidays apart. "Which was?"

Ben tapped his chin with his pencil, looking pensive. "Snowmageddon."

Summer facepalmed. "Snowmageddon? Seriously?" She looked over at Ben's suduko puzzle. "And suduko? Just how old are you? Eighty?"

"I'll have you know solving puzzles like these improves critical thinking, creativity, attitude and focus" Ben gave her _the_ _look_. Since he'd lost some of his baby fat, it was easier for him to pull it off these days.

"So you basically just admitted that you're dull, uncreative and impatient" Summer remarked "I can see you're focused, 'cos ya haven't noticed that there's an orange peel on your head for the past three minutes."

"No I'm not...wait what?" Ben slapped his hand on top of his hair (cut quite a bit shorter so now it less resembled a smoke-plume - rumouredly due to the expense the Union had been covering of the amount of hair spray and gel he had needed to keep it in position) and yanked the orange peel off of it, frowning and grimacing a bit.

No one dared to question what been the fate of the orange.

"You, my significant other, are very, very mean" Ben gave her _the look_ again.

"Aww, you love me really" Summer grinned, looping an arm around his shoulders.

"Well, I'd better" he mumbled "Second we dock, I'm official stuck with you on archipelago of less than 1000 residents."

Summer was about to reply, when a familiar voice piped up from the back of her mind:

"**Oh please - you're hardly ****_alone_****. You've got two dimwits to deal with.**"

Summer stiffened, the white of her unusual pupils dimming slightly. '_Two_?'

* * *

With a flick of his gloved hand, Nick reset the circuit breaker for the smoke alarm. To his relief, the smoke alarm stopped blaring and possibly sending out a homing beacon for Martians to track their location from their base on the moon.

"Whew" Nema wiped her brow as she strode out of her room, covered in soot, grime and who knows what else. "Crisis 479 averted."

"479?" Nick blinked "What happened to the other 478?"

"Thanks for helping Nick - couldn't have done it without you" Nema carried on, taking her work gloves off and placing them in the kitchen counter, yet again forgetting her father's rule about that. "I mean, Papa's off on patrol and Mama never leaves her office unless she's had a break through or the whole _island_ is on the verge of a meltdown and Summer and Ben are away - I need some big, strong adult-power to get stuff fixed to prevent nuclear catastrophes. Orange juice or sprite?"

Nick was about to correct her by mentioning as he was only 16-years-of-age he was not yet an adult and warn her about the Martians potentially sending war machines after them because of the smoke alarm disrupting their 'evil take-over-the-universe plotting seminar', but Nema was spared the rant by her last request. "Huh?"

Nema strode across to the sink, picked up a recently washed pan and began to fill it with water. "I'm going to cook some Sunday Lunch - just with a whole lot less vegetables."

Nick was about to remind the thirteen-year-old scientist it wasn't even Sunday and this idea was clearly the result of radiation poisoning or demonic possession, but she once again stopped him before he could begin. "But do you want a drink first? Orange juice or sprite?"

"Er...sprite please" Nick answered, deciding that he was more likely to be killed by choking on an orange pip than getting horrendous gas pains from the gas bubbles in sprite.

Nema placed the half-filled pot of water on the hob before pouring some sprite mixed with water (she'd learnt from the days he'd spent at her house that he liked it best that way) into a glass for him. Nick took a seat at the table as she set it down for him, not completely trusting him not to drop it and freak out.

"Can I just ask you something?" Nema inquired.

"Er...you'll ask even if I say no" Nick pointed out.

"Why do you wear your watch on your left hand?" Nema asked, completely disregarding Nick's answer to her plainly rhetorical previous question. "I mean, you're left-handed - everybody knows that. Shouldn't you wear it on your right hand or something?"

Nick blinked up at her strangely, plainly not understanding what she was getting at. "But Booker wears it on his left hand?"

Nema just sighed like he was a lost cause (which, honestly, he probably was) as she turned the hob on so the water for the potatoes would boil. "And why are you wearing an Almian family signet ring anyway? I've been meaning to ask you that all day. You're as Kantonese as a Pokéball."

"My _family_ are from Cinnabar Island - I was born and raised in Oblivia" Nick clarified "And it's Booker's. He found it when he was clearing out some of his old junk last week. It doesn't fit on his finger anymore and he doesn't have any children to give it to, so he gave it to me."

Nema grinned, glancing up from the dials she was turning to set the hob's heat, Nick's eyes flickering nervously over to the pot with the rapidly-heating water contained in it. "Aww, he likes you!"

Nick snorted. "Likes me? I bet that old bachelor doesn't even like himself. I mean just last week he—" Nick suddenly sat up ram-rod straight, his gloved hands tightening almost impossibly around his glass of sprite to point Nema was surprised it didn't crack. "Oh no! Could it be?! Could Booker possibly be a serial killer, lying in wait to—!"

Let's leave Nick be shall we? The guy tends to talk in chapters, so sometimes it's just better to let him go on and on and wear himself out rather than trying to interrupt.

Nema meanwhile was struggling valiantly to open what had previously been dubbed: 'The-more-secure-than-Fort-Knox Nema-approved impossible-drawer'.

"Need some help?" Nick offered after he'd been forced to take a breath, then he paled "Oh no! Could it be?! A horrifying, terrifying monster has sealed—"

"Nick, the only horrifying, terrifying monster is whoever gave you that haircut" Nema cut him off, well used to Nick's rants by now. She finally unjammed the drawer and pulled out her trusty wooden spoon. "And don't try to deny it - you haven't taken that bandana off since I was six."

"It-It takes time to find a signature haircut - and I don't want anybody seeing my hair until I'm satisfied nobody will feed me to the cannibals for it, or have me abducted by aliens because they think I'm the mutated spawn of one, or send me off to—" Nick stopped as he registered the look on Nema's face and went back to his original tangent. "Anyway, hair...it's like art. It—"

"Art?!" Nema blew a raspberry "You call hair-dressing art?"

"Well they both take skill and talent, so it must be art" Nick pointed out.

"Oh yeah?" Nema raised an eyebrow "It take skill and talent to hit someone with a saturated-milk balloon from 50 feet away - but I don't go around calling that _art_."

Nick fumbled (as usual) for a response before settling on a shaky: "W-Well, I guess I'll have to prove it to you. Someday. I will."

Nema rolled her eyes. "Sure you will Seaweed Head, right after Ben beats Summer at karate chops."

"Hey!" Nick complained loudly "For the last time, neither my hair nor my brain - I think - are made of seaweed!"

"Tell that to the crabs that live in it!" Nema shot back.

"I do not have—!"

"Nema! Nick! Don't make me come down there!" Leanne, Nema's mama, called down from her study on the second floor.

"He started it!" Nema protested.

"I don't care who started it! I'll _finish_ it!"

Nema pouted. "It was so totally _your_ fault!"

"Nema! I'm warning you!"

"Sorry Mama!" Nema called upstairs, not wanting to be grounded in her mother's office when Summer and Ben arrived. She hated only being 13 sometimes.

"We're sorry!" Nick chimed in, then lowered his voice to gasp: "Unless—! Oh no! Could it be?! You're not really sorry and are secretly hiding plans to kill me and chop my body into—!"

"Nick, shut up!" Nema cut him off, absentmindedly stirring the pot with the wooden spoon, though not actually looking at it. "Summer and Ben 'll be here soon and I can't be grounded when they do! I have a mega surprise in store for them!"

Nick just blinked dumbly at her, twisting his glass in his hands. "Oh. So...I should probably stop talking now?"

Nema just nodded with a sigh and glanced down into her pot, whimsical for a second.

But only a second.

"AHHH! Mama, I burnt the water!"

* * *

Hello?

Hello, is anybody there?

Hello?!

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Somebody...

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Please...

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Please help me...

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Help me...

...please...


	2. Family matters

**"Freedom to use hair-care products - it's in the Bill of Rights."**

**"Excuse my French, but what the hell is wrong with you?!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Two - Family matters**

_Summer threw her head back, letting the wind whip back her brown hair and her scarf. She wrapped her arms tighter around her father's torso as she had so many times before, listening to the engine of the motorbike roaring beneath them as the world sped by in a blur of colour._

_"Hold on!" Her father had to yell to be heard over the engine. But her godfather had told her many times before that her father was an expert in the art of being loud. "We're almost home!"_

_Summer nodded. She had been along this route many times in her twelve years of life, and knew they were approaching Chicole Village._

_A minute later, the motorbike sped into the village with an unholy roar, kicking up a cloud of dust as it spun around at the Southern end and headed back towards the top again. But before the motorbike could get back up to speed, it jerked to a stop, nearly throwing Summer off._

_"Whoa! What the— holy Latios! Whatta ya doing Kel?! I nearly ran you over!"_

_Summer peered around her father to see what he was complaining about. There, standing only two metres away from the front wheel of the motorbike with his hands on his hips, was her Uncle Kellyn._

_"What am **I** doing, Keith? I think the question is what are you doing?" Summer recognised the tone her godfather was speaking in. It was the same voice he had used when she and her friend Murph had stolen his capture styler for the day. "Maybe **you** would like to explain why, for the **millionth **time, I must scold you for taking my goddaughter out on this dangerous piece of machinery when the safety—"_

_"Oh here we go again" Keith muttered to his daughter "And so the monologue begins." _

_Summer laughed in response. Whenever Kellyn got riled up about something, he could easily go on until the middle of next week. His record rant was 8 hours long and he was trying break it. World War 3 had nearly occurred between Kellyn and Keith at least 10 times in the past - mainly about how Keith had chosen to raise his daughter. How they survived as next-door neighbours as well as colleagues was a mystery to the entire universe._

_"—safety gear and helmets! Well, at least you had the decency to give your daughter one but of course you would go racing through the woods on this dangerou—"_

_"Uncle Kellyn!" _

_Summer jumped off of the motorbike and ran over to her godfather, giving him the biggest hug possible, successfully cutting him off. Kellyn stopped ranting and smiled, giving his goddaughter a hug back. He then pushed her away slightly and removed the goggles of the motorbike helmet from her eyes. Lively dark-green eyes almost freakishly similar to Kellyn's own looked up at him. A long way up. Despite his infamous 'Shorty' title during his first years as a ranger, when he hit 17, Kellyn had shot up so quickly people had started wondering if Vatona and Nage had used him as a test-dummy for a growth experiment. Now he towered over most people - even Keith, much to the ginger's annoyance. The only way he could exert revenge these days was through the nickname 'Beanpole', which quickly climbed to the top of Kellyn's least favourite words._

_"Aw, so Summer gets a hug and I don't?" Keith pouted, climbing off his 'oh so precious' motorbike. It had been a birthday present when he was 18 - from **himself** no less - and he'd treasured it ever since then. Unfortunately, Kellyn didn't see the perks of motorbikes - or of taking twelve-year-old girls on them._

_"Motorbycles—"_

_"Motor__**bike**__s, Kel."_

_"What the Arceus damn things are called, are one of the most dangerous forms of transport Keith - let alone when you ride them off-road! Have you seen the safety ratings for those things?! They—!"_

_"Yeah yeah, very long ramble, blah de blah de blah" Keith motioned for Kellyn to skip to the next part "Where's Kans?"_

_Kellyn rolled his eyes. "Kan**sas** is at the Union already. Like a responsible adult, she took a Staraptor there. Not this environment-polluting heap of metal!" He kicked the motorbike for good measure. "Honestly, I'll never understand what she sees in you."_

_"Oh, I dunno Kel" Keith sighed dramatically "Maybe she likes this little thing most human beings have - it's called a sense of humour."_

_Summer giggled. There was something about her father that made almost everyone laugh at whatever he said, even if it wasn't all that funny._

_"Alright, have your fun" Kellyn sighed "You can be late, but I sure ain't gonna be." _

_He turned away and began to walk towards the exit of the village._

_"Spoil-sport" Keith grumbled before smiling at his daughter "So, who wants to ride to the Ranger Union on Daddy's motorbike?"_

_"Yeah!" Summer cheered, nodding her head eagerly._

_"Absolutely not!" Kellyn immediately shot back._

_"Oh c'mon, Kelly!" Keith groaned "Live a little! If you tried it just once, you might find you actually enjoy it."_

_Kellyn shot him the most frustrated and exasperated look in the history of frustrated and exasperated looks. "Keith, you're not understanding what I'm saying!"_

_"Yeah, too right I'm not."_

_Summer laughed at the comeback._

_Kellyn grit his teeth as he tried to restrain himself from punching Keith in front of Summer._

_"Oh re-**lax** will you, Beanpole!" Keith grinned at him, swinging one leg over his motorbike "Geez, you wouldn't know fun if it tied you up and slapped in the face with a fish!" His grin got even wider at that. "Actually, that's a brilliant idea! Summer, you tie him up, I'll go find a fish!"_

_Summer giggled. She had to admit, her dad did have a point. She'd scarcely ever seen her Uncle Kellyn **smile** properly before, let alone have fun. The only time she'd seen him truly happy about something was when she found a video of him and her Aunt Kate singing 'Defying Gravity' from the musical 'Wicked' when they were still teenagers - and his expression had been **anything** but fun when he'd found her, Ben and Murph watching it._

_"What do you mean I don't know fun?" Kellyn glowered at the ginger man on the motorbike "I am capable of plenty of fun thank you - just in moderated doses, unlike **someone** we know."_

_"Kellyn, you're the guy who took Summer to the theme park for her eighth birthday only to refuse to get on any rides with the excuse - and I quote - 'No Small Child, I'm not getting on that lawsuit waiting to happen'" Keith shot his best friend (a position they both maintained for some reason neither for them - Kellyn in particular - were particularly sure of ) a raised-eyebrow look. Kellyn took a deep breath before executing a storm-off that would make Rhythmi Song proud. "Oh c'mon Kelly! I'm only joking! Build a bridge and get over it!"_

_But Kellyn promptly ignored him in favour of completing his dramatic storm-off by vanishing from sight around the corner._

_"And he calls me a child" Keith shook his head, pulling his goggles down over his eyes, then grinning down at his daughter who was stood at the foot of the motorbike. "So, Little Lady? Who's up for a another spin on this baby?!"_

* * *

_The Ranger Union's lobby was always packed with people from all walks of life. Today was no different, Summer noted, her twelve-year-old brain taking note of every detail it could absorb. Two receptionists stood at the desk, taking requests from the line of concerned citizens queuing in front of their desk. Murph Imachi bumbled__ from one end of the lobby to the other, knocking into people repeatedly as he rattled a list off of a clipboard, his thirteen-year-old son and namesake hurrying after him in a similar fashion. Two female area rangers - Summer had forgotten their names, they were a bit older than her - were chatting on their break in the comfort of two armchairs. A faint boom and a slight shake of the building told her Mr Vatona or Mr Nage probably had their inventing hats on; maybe they were reinventing a new and improved nuclear bomb like they'd always threatened to if Professor Hastings forgot to pay them again. And finally, standing near the escalator giving Uncle Kellyn a pat on the shoulder was her mother._

_Summer had always thought her mother was the prettiest woman to have ever existed. Kansas Dazaru - née Kimura - was of supermodel-beauty and a sore sight to any eye. Her blonde hair was kept back off her face by a blue ribbon, as always, and her ocean blue eyes stood out in only the most perfect ways in her porcelain face. Uncle Kellyn always joked Summer's father had had to complete a series of tasks equivalent to that of The Twelve Trials of Hercules to even get her mother's attention, though Kanna - as she was affectionately known - always told Summer it was simply a case of love at first sight at the tender age of seventeen. Still, Summer wished she could look more like her mother instead of having her dull brown hair and green eyes that weren't even apparent on her father._

_"Would you like to explain why Kellyn just came in here swearing and raging about health violations and child abuse?" Kanna raised a challenging white-blonde eyebrow as she strutted (yes, _**_strutted_**_ \- it was a word Summer's father used to refer to Kanna walking anywhere and then had pretty much begged Summer not to use in front of the woman herself) over to them as they approached the escalator._

_"Oh don't you go worrying about him" Keith chuckled, wrapping his arms around her "Kelly's just flipping his word-I-cannot-say-in-front-of-our-daughter again."_

_Knowing that probing further would probably give her a front-row seat for the next segment of what Sven had once stupidly called '**World War Kelleith**', Kanna merely laughed it off, rubbing his jacket-clad shoulders and pecking the lips of her husband of fourteen years._

_"Ew! Seriously!" Summer pulled a face, looking sickened as she hurried away from her parents and sat herself down on the side-rail of the currently unmoving escalator. __She resumed her original task- from before she walked into the Ranger Union - of scrolling through her styler, looking for a mini-game to distract her more than ever now. "Do you guys, like, have to do that in public?! Save it for the bedroom or somewhere!"_

_Her parents may be one of the cutest couples in ranger history, but that didn't mean she had to put up with their seemingly endless PDA._

_"Save it for the bedroom?" Kellyn echoed, then sending Keith a murderous glance "Keith, I swear—"_

_"Aww, what's wrong sweetheart? Don't like me like me kissing your beautiful mother?" Keith's face read nothing but mischief, only looking away from Summer for the briefest if seconds to return the peck on his wife's lips. "Well, I'll remember this conversation when you get a boyfriend."_

_Whilst Kellyn looked absolute horrified at the idea of his goddaughter **ever** getting a boyfriend, Summer shot her father the devil of all glares. If Kellyn was paying attention to it, he would've been quite impressed. "Dad! If you even think about embarrassing me like that, so Arceus help you, __my teenage rebellion period will be so hard, it will make the Unovan Revolution look like a picnic!"_

_That just turned her father's snorts and chuckles into full-on laughs._

_Kellyn sighed and rolled his eyes. "I personally wanted to toss him out the window the second they started acting all lovey-dovey before they ever _**_got together_**_ and were still acting so awkwardly in love it was **killing** us all, but your mother argued against that for some reason."_

_Of course Kellyn didn't see the 'irony' sign practically neon flashing above his head as he said that. His awkward years with Kate had caused so much sexual tension it resulted in some very awkward hook-up around the Ranger Union. But hey, it also resulted in Murph Sr finding his now-wife so at least something good came out of those years of waiting and waiting for them to get their act together._

_"Oh come on! What is your problem with me?" Keith sent him a frustrated if not slightly confused look, the laughter ceasing immediately. Summer froze on her perch as her mother carefully disentangled herself from her husband's arms and came to stand next to her daughter__ \- it was common knowledge that t_o _say Kellyn Hajime's relationship with Keith Dazuru was volatile at best was a bit like saying The Great Wall Of China was 'kind of long'._

_"Oh I don't know, maybe it's your 'life's a big game' attitude, or the over-bearing amount of artificial products you put in your hair?" Kellyn replied, shooting out anything he could think of about Keith that annoyed him - and believe me, if he was allowed to continue, we could be here a while. "Seriously, it's a good job you don't smoke or you'd spontaneously combust. I could light a match next to you and you'd burn the place down like a freaking candle."_

_"Hey, I can wear hair-gel if I want" Keith shot back, pouting although that hadn't really worked since the day he'd turned nineteen. "Freedom to use hair-care products - it's in the Bill of Rights."_

_Summer looked up at him and frowned. "Didn't the founding fathers all wear wigs?"_

_Keith didn't have anything to say to that, but looked like he wanted to say something. So Summer asked something else of __her Uncle Kellyn: "Did you really want to throw Daddy out of the window?"_

_Kellyn rolled his eyes, but still gave her one of those smiles that didn't quite reach his eyes - one of those smiles that was just Uncle Kellyn in a nutshell with a bow around it. "No Sweetie, I was joking."_

_Keith almost choked on his own saliva at that, halfway between laughing and staring at him in disbelief._

_"What?!" Kellyn's smile immediately faded as he resumed glaring at Keith. "I was joking. I'm allowed to joke."_

_"Joke, oh please!" Keith clutched his stomach, breath escaping his throat in a mixture of spluttering, coughing and laughter. "This is the guy who's jokes always start with 'A man walked into a bar'!"_

_"And the other man ducked" Kellyn finished for him. Summer giggled, but she was the only one who did._

_"I'm sorry Kellyn, but your jokes do get boring after the first four or so" Kanna chipped in, moving to stand next to her husband in full support of him._

_Kellyn glowered at her, but Kanna knew not to take it personally. "Okay, first of all, my jokes are **not**boring."_

_Keith looked over at Summer, stage-whispering to her with a grin: "That's what **he** thinks."_

_Summer's giggle clearly gave it away, if the look on Kellyn's face was everything to go by. "Keith..."_

_Keith winced in the face of the mother of all glares complete with a low growl. "Ooh, Scary Kellyn! Okay, okay!"_

_"Kelly, please tell me you're not threatening Keith in front of Summer again."_

_'**Saved by the bell**' Summer couldn't help but think '**Or rather, saved by Aunt Kate**.'_

_Sure enough, her Aunt Kate was peering down at them from the top of the escalators. Even at the age of almost-thirty-seven, Summer always thought her godmother looked like one of those cutesie animated characters she'd seen on the television. She just looked too adorable to be real with her neck-length ginger hair __and kid-like facial features. But whenever she was around Summer, the twelve-year-old could see a look of sadness and longing on her face, something she tried to keep buried beneath a facade of over-the-top happiness but was never quite able to do so. When she'd asked her father about it, he knew exactly what she was talking about:_

_**"It's a bit of jealousy really" he'd explained "She always wanted a child of her own."**_

_**"Why didn't she?" Summer frowned, not understanding.**_

_**"Because the identity of their father would mean they'd never get to have a normal life" Keith responded "They'd pretty much have to be kept in protective custody until they were old enough to defend themselves efficiently."**_

_**"Uncle Kellyn? Why?" Summer pressed on, feeling like this was starting to become a game of twenty-questions, but genuinely curious as to why she didn't have any god-cousins, if that was the correct term.**_

_**"You know what he is, right?" Keith looked around them discreetly, but it appeared no one was listening in on their conversation in the cafe in Pueltown where they did those awesome cheesecakes that both father and daughter just ****loved****.**_

**_"A psychic being, like me" Summer responded, her white pupils almost lighting up at a bit as she said that with such pride._**

**_"Well, even for a psychic being Uncle Kellyn a bit...different" Keith looked like he was trying to figure out the best way to put this to child "He's...special. He's someone important to a lot of people on different planes."_**

**_"Aeroplanes?" Summer frowned in confusion, spoon halfway to her mouth, not quite understanding where aeroplanes came into this._**

**_"No, planes of existence...argh!" Keith dropped his spoon on his saucer and started kneading his forehead as if he had a headache. "Ask me when you're older! I'm getting a migraine!"_**

**_"So, Uncle Kellyn can't have kids because he's too special?" Summer tried to understand._**

**_"Well, leverage wouldn't cover it if something happened to a kid of his" Keith tried to explain, but then it looked like words failed him and he returned to his desert "Again, just, I'll explain when you're older, okay? Now eat your cheesecake - I've got to get you home before your mother finds out."_**

_Apparently 'when you're older' wasn't twelve-years-old._

_"Come on up" Kate gestured for them to come upstairs "There's someone here to see you."_

_Wondering if anyone else from her extended family had come to see her off on her first top ranger mission brief - maybe her Uncle Sorrel or Uncle Percy or one of Uncle Percy's kids - Summer hurried up to the second floor and grinned when she saw who was there._

_"Ben-Ben!" She cheered, throwing herself at him to grab him in hug "I told them you wouldn't be late! I told them!"_

_Benjamin Devon Natsuya had been her best friend for as long as Summer could remember. She, Ben and Murph Jr were the only three kids their ages to live in Chicole Village, and they all shared the same dream of working for the Ranger Union some day. Summer and Ben were particularly close, mostly because of their love of fun and positive views on life in general. So when Ben had been stationed at Pueltown Ranger Base, Summer made sure she was stationed there too. There was a year's difference between them - Ben was thirteen, she was twelve - but it didn't stop them from being the best of partners and accelerating to top rangers at a speed only rivalled by Summer's father and godparents._

_"Summer, need breath!" Ben hissed looking around nervously as the electric lights around them started to flicker and glow in response to Summer's psychic powers. He pushed her back as bit and tried to engage in conversation to stop any fuses from blowing. "I promised I wouldn't be late this time - they weren't gonna stop me from my first briefing as a top ranger."_

_Summer detected the sadness behind his grin and tried to drop the subject, the lights dimming down again simultaneously, but her mother wasn't as good at reading her daughter's best friend's emotions._

_"No one here to see you off, Ben?" she asked despite Summer's pleading look to stop the second she figured out what her mother was about to say._

_Immediately, Ben's smile turned forced and he replied with a terse: "Nope."_

_Summer winced at the pang of guilt and rage she felt within her as he said that. Despite growing up in a region renowned for being the motherland to rangers, the Natsuyas were very clear than none of their children were going to become rangers. Both parents were doctors, and three of their grandparents had been doctors in the Great War half a centuary ago. Ben had been trained to follow the family legacy pretty much from the second they received the sonogram. But Summer's family had opened his eyes to world of rangers, and he was hooked immediately. His dream was something that had caused numerous fierce clashes with his parents, until it got to point that - with funding from his sympathetic aunt in Goldenrod City - he'd applied for Ranger School and spent almost two whole years there, only returning home for a few days at Christmas to see his extended family. His parents weren't there at his graduation, or when he became a top ranger, so it was no real surprise to Summer they wouldn't be here for his first top ranger mission briefing either._

_'__**It just isn't fair**__' Summer couldn't help but think '**Someone as nice as Ben deserves the greatest family in the history of families.**' _

_Because despite his dead-beat parents, Ben was a good kid. He'd even managed to earn her Uncle Kellyn's approval (he was always worryingly concerned about who she was friends with, Summer had never figured out why) __after a monologue about responsibility and priorities and for some reason the cholera epidemic of 1854. _

_"Nervous?" Kellyn asked, breaking the awkward tension in the hallway that had become so thick you could literally cut it with a knife._

_"Yeah" Ben admitted, rubbing the back of his head whilst Summer sent her godfather a bashful smile of confirmation._

_"Okay, remember, chin up and act like you know everything" Keith reminded her once again, giving her a rather hard clap on the shoulder blade "Show even the slightest weakness, Prof. Hastings will eat you up alive. He can _**_smell_**_ fear."_

_"No, he could smell the urine from when you peed your pants the first eight times you saw him" Kellyn folded his arms and sent his partner a knowing look._

_Surprisingly, Keith didn't try to deny the claim. "That was one time! And the guy was carrying a freaking cane! I didn't know what he was going to do with it!"_

_"He has a cane?" Ben looked up at Kellyn, alarmed at this news he'd never heard before._

_'**Poor kid, not having ranger parents must suck**' Summer inwardly winced. _

_She knew she was lucky to have two parents and a set of godparents who were rangers - it meant she could be homeschooled and take her official ranger certification test a year early. Ben had had to go the long way, surviving two years of ranger school and working his way up the ranks to top ranger in a surprisingly quick amount of time. It meant though that Ben had no source what-so-ever for finding out tit-bits of essential info for surviving the almost kindergarten-like world of top rangers._

_"Don't worry, the guy's, like, eighty-something-years-old - the only thing he's hitting with that cane is the edge of his own armchair" Summer reassured him. _

_Ben seemed to relax a tiny bit - but only a **tiny** bit. His shoulders were still hunched up around his neck. Summer couldn't help but make comparisons to a fluffed up Starly._

_"It's one o'clock" Kellyn called up from behind them, Summer couldn't see where - maybe from one of the escalators._

_"That's your cue to go in" Kate translated for them._

_Ben gave Summer a sideways glance. "You ready for our first mission as official top rangers?"_

_"Are you kidding me?" Summer allowed herself to smirk a bit "I was raised by some of Almia's finest top rangers. I practically grew up inside this building. I was pretty much bred for this."_

_Ben chuckled. "Well good for some, I was raised by two doctors." Shaking his head, he clapped her in the shoulder, similar to how her father had just before. "C'mon."_

_And with that they pushed the green door open, and let fate throw whatever it had up its sleeve at them..._

* * *

"Summer. Oi Summer! Wakey-Wakey, rise and shine!"

Summer was startled awake by frantic shaking of the surface she was lying on as well at that annoying voice that was practically inside her ear and reverberating off of her brain.

"Ben! Gerroff!" She gowned, shoving him away and causing the hammock she was lying in to sway violently, almost tipping her out.

"C'mon silly, you've been asleep for hours" Ben grinned, taking a few steps back a) so Summer could get out of the hammock, and b) so he could have a head-start if Summer tried to throttle him. "We're at Tilt Village already. Murph's gone to get some grub for his journey home, so we've gotta leave before he gets back."

Scowling, Summer got down from the hammock and glared over at the ocean. On command, a blob of sea water rose from the surface and propelled itself at Ben, narrowly missing his head.

'_Darn_' she thought as Ben chuckled and his Staraptor cackled like a parrot from up on the mast. '_I need more practise_.'

Annoyingly enough, the only psychic being she knew besides herself was her Uncle Kellyn, and whilst he had some awesome powers at went from telekinesis to opening up rifts in time and space (or at least, he claimed he could do it. No one could actually back this up with witness testimony), he couldn't control the elements, so Summer had pretty much had to train herself.

"**Oh, I feel so loved. Nice to see the pointers I gave you were useless. Love you too and all that. And your aim is terrible - that's what happens when you rely on your Pokémon too much.**"

'_Oh will you shut up for once_!' Summer shot back in her head, bending down to fasten her boots. As she looked up though, she saw something in the sky that did _not_ belong. "What in the name of Arceus is that?"

Ben twisted his neck to look around Tilt Village, missing the point entirely. "What is what?"

Summer glared at him. She'd just woken up after a long boat journey and was not in the mood for games. "Are you blind or just plain thick?!"

Ben winced. "Ooh, Angry Summer. Haven't seen you in a while."

Grabbing Ben's neck in what could only be described as a 'Vulcan death grip', Summer growled with frustration and dragged him over to the side of the boat, gesturing to what she was referring to. A big grey-ish dot was travelling across the sky at what appeared to be a leisurely pace, similar to an aeroplane, but lower and not producing any jet fumes.

"Bird Pokémon by any chance, 'Official Area Ranger'?" Summer glared, unimpressed, marking Ben's new title with air quotes.

Ben shaded his eyes from the sun and squinted. "Well it's too big to be a Staraptor. Latias maybe?"

Summer shook her head. "No. No, it's not her."

The two of them then watched at two little dots emerged from the grey dot, circling it before zipping away in different directions hyper-speed.

"**_Yikes that's fast_**" Summer heard Ben's Staraptor remark, followed by some murmuring agreement from Pokémon around Tilt Village.

"Whoa" was all Summer could say as she watched the little dots fly away into the distance. She poked Ben to make sure he was seeing it too. "You saw that too right? Ben?"

Frowning at her partner's lack of response, Summer looked at him this time. Her poke became a gentle grip as she realised the whole of Ben's body was vibrating his eyes wide and unfocused. "Ben, you're trembling. What's the—?"

"STOP IT! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET OFF ME! GET OFF!" Ben's screaming reaction was so sudden and violent, Summer didn't see the fist coming until it was on her chest.

Forced back by the punch and completely caught off guard, Summer didn't notice her friend was practically hyperventilating and his eyes were wildly darting around over everything. She couldn't process anything until she had grabbed his wrist in a painfully tight grip. He was lucky she hadn't let her psychic powers lash out at him or he might've been supporting third-degree burns by this stage. "Excuse my French, but what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"LET GO! LET GO!" Ben was practically sobbing by this stage as he tried to jerk away from her whilst thrashing his other arm about, as if pleading for his life. Wherever the hell his head was, it clearly wasn't on the deck of The Union parked at the dock in Tilt Village. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING ME AGAIN! LET GO OFF OF! LET GO!"

Summer dearly prayed this was just an outward reaction to one of Ben's 'episodes'. Occasionally he'd just go quiet, sit down and stare at nothing for a while before returning a few minutes later right as rain. She didn't know where he went in his head during one of these episodes, and they were pretty much the only thing he refused to talk to her about. She couldn't recall if he'd been having them since childhood or if they were something new, but she'd never sen him act violently like this in the midst of one. One thing was for certain, he needed snapping out of it.

SLAP!

Summer was pretty sure her folks back home heard the crack of skin on skin as Ben's head snapped to the right. His thrashing stopped immediately, and for a few seconds they did nothing but stand there and tried to catch their breaths. Then Ben's brown eyes met Summer's green ones, and he stumbled backwards into The Union's side rail, wrenching his wrist free to cover his mouth with his hand, staring at her in utter horror. It was as if he himself couldn't comprehend what he'd just done.

"Are you going to tell me why you just attacked me right now?" Summer asked, voice low in an effort not to spook him too much. She'd never seen her partner like this before and treating him like a spooked Pokémon was the only thing she could think to do right now.

Ben clearly wanted to say something, but only a few strangled noise escaped his throat. Then, with an anguished whine, he bolted off of the deck and up the slope into Tilt Village.

"**_I'll keep an eye on him_**" his Staraptor offered with a sigh, taking off into the air to follow him.

Summer, absolutely thunderstruck, could only, stand there gazing out over the ocean, not able to process or understand what had just happened before her very eyes.

"**Nicely handled, Little Miss Shrink**."

Summer didn't even snap for him to shut his trap this time. She just raised her styler to the sky and called for Raikou.


	3. Under Attack

**"Look at that, even your scarf hates you."**

**"...and I did that because of ****reasons****!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Three - Under Attack**

Sandwiches are apparently less complex than Sunday Lunch - even minus the vegetables.

"She didn't need to kick us out" Nema grumpily muttered, taking another bite of her egg sandwich as she sat on the front door step: the dew made the grass near unbearable to sit on. "I mean, I didn't _actually_ set fire to the kitchen this time. I wasn't going to destroy things by _eating a sandwich_ at the table."

Nick nodded as he chewed, his movements as slow and quiet and calm as possible to avoid setting Nema off an another rant: when Leanne had bodily removed them from the house with only the clothes on their back and a sandwich each (with the crusts cut off for Nick as he preferred them that way - that way the nanobots inside them couldn't take him over and make him a mind-controlled puppet for the world's evil), Nema had absolutely lost it and started marching back and forth in front of the house screeching her head off in a rant that made evil masterminds' speeches sound like brief business notes, sounding like a off-meds schizophrenic. Or like a person in need for an exorcism, which was what Nick was banking on. He didn't bring it up though - he didn't want to upset the evil spirits taking over Nema's mind.

Plus setting her off was just damn scary. She made raging Onixes look like Skitties.

"Maybe she was afraid the radioactive fumes from her secret experiments upstairs would scramble our brain patterns if we sat inside the house?" Nick offered.

"Hold it right there" Nema held up her hand to stop him, forcing her mouthful to the side of her mouth so she could talk. "For starters: my mama is a researcher, not a scientist. There's nothing radioactive in her study."

"The books could be radioactive" Nick declared in a near whimper, before bolting upright and blurting out: "Oh no! Could it be?! Your mama is not really a researcher but a top secret spy for the government who think Oblivia is actually a secret breeding ground for aliens and mutants and are planning to have it blown up with you mama's help, not caring which citizens are—!"

"Hey look, it's Papa!" Nema blurted out, jumping to her feet and throwing her sandwich at Nick, waving both her arms in the air "Hey Papa!"

As if cued, Rand glided down from the sky, jumping off of the Staraptor's back and releasing it, letting it soar off into the baby-blue sky. Running a hand through his sweat-stained hair, Rand shot his daughter a tired smile. "Out early to welcome me, are you?"

"Hey Papa!" Nema grinned, meandering a few steps forward and whipping out a iced Victoria Sponge from either thin air or a secret pocket in time, space and reality that automatically set alarm bells ringing inside Nick's head. "Happy Birthday!"

"Did you make this for me?" Rand shot the cake a suspicious glance, as if he didn't quite trust it. Nick could understand the sentiment.

"Well duh!" Nema sent him a look that just screamed _obviously!_ "You have now officially been on the planet for 35 years, Papa! How does that make you feel?!"

"The same way I felt yesterday when I was officially on the planet for 34 years and 355 days" Rand sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Tough day, Mr Rand?" Nick inquired nervously. He still wasn't completely comfortable around his (dare he say it?) best-friend's father. He was still certain the man was the result of an experiment featuring Smurfs and dastardly evil plans.

"Not really" Rand cricked his neck to the side. "Those drugs smugglers really need a better security system. An idiot could walk into their HQ, door unlocked, and walk right back out right out again."

"An idiot did!" Nema joked, Nick immediately looking at her alarmed. If he'd said something like that to _his_ father...

Rand sent his daughter a joking glare. "You," he looped an arm around her shoulders and began messing up her hair, despite her pleads to stop. "Are such an insufferable teenager!"

* * *

"This is TauAlpha, over."

"TauAlpha, this is HyakuJûRoku, over."

"HyakuJûRoku, we have the target in our sights. Repeat, we have the target in our sights, over."

"TauAlpha, do you have a clear shot? Over"

"Negative HyakuJûRoku. Target is too far. Repeat, target is too far, over."

"TauAlpha, report when you have clear shot at the target, over."

"HyakuJûRoku, we have rangers at our 2 o'clock. Repeat, we have rangers at our 2 o'clock, over."

"HyakuJûRoku calling RhoOmega. Repeat, HyakuJûRoku calling RhoOmega, over."

"HyakuJûRoku this is RhoOmega, over."

"RhoOmega, do you have rangers in your sights. Repeat, do you have rangers in your sights? Over."

"HyakuJûRoku, this is RhoOmega. Rangers at 1 o'clock. Repeat, rangers at 1 o'clock, over."

"RhoOmega, do you have a shot? Repeat, do you have a shot? Over."

"HyakuJûRoku, permission to fire at will? Over."

"RhoOmega, this is HyakuJûRoku. Fire at will! Repeat, fire at will! Over."

"Understood HyakuJûRoku. Over and out."

* * *

Nick had just opened his mouth to tell the father and daughter who appeared to be trying to wrestle each other about the strange humming sound when he saw the shadow. He immediately shrieked and ducked behind a flowerpot as the shadow, accompanied by a whizzing noise in the sky, zipped across the lawn and disappeared over the house.

"What the?!" Rand startled, letting go of his hold on Nema to look at the sky in the direction the object that had created the shadow disappeared in.

"Was that a Z.Z Flyer?!" Nema stared at the sky in shock.

"Could it be?" Rand asked, though he wasn't exactly sure who he was asking. Something in his gut told him this was different. A new threat. Dare he say it? A worst threat.

"IT'S COMING BACK!" Nick wailed from behind the flowerpot he was cowering behind.

As Nema and Rand listened, they heard the humming sound that Nick had heard just before the object appeared. Sure enough, seconds later, a flat object identical to the one that had just passed over them appeared above the tree-line and hovered above the lawn. Before anyone could open their mouth to yell, shout or even wail again, some brightly coloured laser beams began to buzz out of a little hemisphere in the bottom of the object, singeing the ground they touched.

"ALIENS!" Nick screamed so loudly and at such a high pitch half of Renbow Island and probably most of Mitonga Island must've thought a six-year-old girl was being abducted.

"Duck!" Rand's voice thundered over the humming of the flying object. He pulled Nema by her signature lab coat around the corner of the house, the sound of the wooden walls of the house splintering as one of the laser beams hit it. Rand listened as four more laser beams hit the house and ground before the only sound filtering though the winter's air was the humming. After a few more seconds, the humming turned into whizzing that faded away as the object apparently left overhead to join its companion.

Half a minute passed with the only sounds being their breathing, the sound of Pokémon coming out of hiding and the ringing in their ears, until finally father and daughter re-emerged from behind their house. Both of them could only stare at the two black spots on the side of their house where the laser beams had hit.

"What was that?" Nema whispered to her father, almost in sink with Nick's - who was still trembling behind the miraculously unscathed flowerpot - whimpering if the same question.

Rand opened his mouth, with no clue of what he was going to say, but was cut off by an almighty explosion from the mountain above them.

* * *

Summer swore Ben was as stubborn as a...no, not a mule - he makes mules look darn compliant!

Either that or he was just hiding and not answering his styler.

Or at the bottom of a cliff awaiting death, but probably the first one.

"—I mean, he is _so_ selfish! He thinks just because he's got a few family issues and went through a bad experience that he can get away with anything! Lots of people go through that sort of stuff and they don't go around hitting people and not facing up to it! I mean, anyone would think he was certifiably _insane_! What coward hits a girl anyway?!"

Raikou's ears were drooped and he did not look happy about the fact he had to listen to Summer's ranting. After the initial shock of her uncharacteristic confrontation with Ben had worn off, it had gave way to rage, and so far Raikou had been subjected to almost ten whole minutes of ranting. In fact, if Summer had been listening instead of spilling her guts about how much she now utterly _hated_ her partner, she probably would've heard Raikou repeat: "**_Make it _****stop**!" for the third time.

And as if the universe completely and utter hated her (or was just answering Raikou's prayers the best it could) Summer's yellow scarf came free of her neck.

"Latios dammit!" Summer swore as she ordered Raikou to halt not long before the end of the Booker's Bridge, forcing her to get off and run after the scarf that had thankfully caught on a plank.

"**Look at that, even your scarf hates you**."

Okay, Summer had taken a lot of crap over the years, but this was too much.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP FOR ONCE!" she screamed to the sky, wishing all this anger would just get out of her. She hated being angry - it made this guy even more talkative.

"**Whoa there Princess, might wanna tone it down a bit. People are gonna start thinking you're crazy.**"

'_I am crazy_!' She seethed in her head '_I either created you or for some insane reason gave you permission to stay in my head. Whichever way, I am counting down the days until you __**leave**_!'

"**Not happening, Sweetcheeks. Love you too by the way. Namaste and all that.**"

Now, you might be wondering who Summer is having a mental argument with. Well, surprisingly, it's not a Pokémon.

Summer wasn't sure how long it had been there, or if she'd been born with it, but for as long as she could remember, there had always been a voice in the back of her mind. It didn't talk all the time: a couple of times a day at the most. When she was little, it was always laughing with her, guiding her, keeping her safe, helping her control her psychic being powers. But he (she'd decided it was a he) always sounded so sad, so Summer had named him Forlorn.

Now though he was anything but forlorn. Now he was just a pesky nuisance who always made fun of her. It had lasted pretty much since the end of her first stint in Oblivia, as if now she was a hero she didn't need any more help. Summer swore he got a kick out of it.

She'd never really talked to anyone about Forlorn - not even Ben or Murph. The only one who knew was her Aunt Kate, who she'd mentioned it to once when she was about six or so. Kate had explained she had a girl in her head too, a girl called Solana, but that Summer must keep Forlorn a secret. That she'd be called crazy if she let anyone know.

Now, Summer could see why. She certainly felt like she was crazy. Raikou was sure looking at her as if she was crazy.

"Excuse me, Miss." A little hand pulled hard on the hem of Summer's jacket. Whirling around, she saw a small girl was staring at her with huge glassy eyes. One hand was clutching on to her jacket, and in the tight grasp of the other was a pair of goggles. They were worn, torn and the glass had been knocked out of one of them whilst the other was cracked and they were completely soaking wet - but they were still a very familiar pair of goggles.

"Did you drop this?" the girl held the goggles out towards Summer. The brunette tapped the top of her head and found her own goggles were still there.

'_They must be Ben's_' she realised '_He said he lost a pair in our struggle with Red-eyes when we first came to Oblivia. I guess it makes sense they washed up__eventually_.'

"_**I think they're hers**_!"

Summer looked over to her right and saw a Cherubi bouncing up and down on the bridge excitedly. Summer guessed it was the girl's.

The brunette turned her head to face this strange new person again, the little hand leaving her jacket hem, and crouched down to be on the girl's level. Summer could now see this stranger had shoulder-length brown hair with a few flaxen highlights and very pretty sea-blue eyes. She didn't appear to be any older than seven.

"Yes, they belong to my friend!" Summer smiled, taking the goggles and making the girl smile too "Thank you! I thought I'd lost them! My name is Summer!"

"Hello!" the girl smiled back, the grin stretching from one tanned ear to the other "I'm Destiny! Cherubi and I were walking along the beach when we saw your glasses! I held on to them for a _really_ long time so I could find their owner - and then I saw you with those same glasses now!" She giggled. "Nice to meet you!"

"Well it's nice too meet you too, Destiny!" Summer gently placed a hand on Destiny's shoulder "Thank you for returning my goggles!" Destiny giggled again and ran out of Summer's grasp back across the bridge towards Renbow Island, the Cherubi quickly bouncing after her. Before she completely left the bridge though, Destiny turned around and waved enthusiastically to Summer.

"Bye-bye!" she called. Summer stood up fully and waved back as Destiny vanished from sight behind the trees.

"Goodbye Destiny!" she called.

But the little girl had only be gone a few seconds before Summer heard a deafening blast. She could hear Pokémon scattering in all directions. Even Raikou startled with a: "_**What the bolt was that**_?!"

Summer's eyes drifted upwards and she could see the remains of an explosion at the top of Mt Latolato. A sinking feeling was felt in the pit of her stomach.

'_We can't...be under attack_? _Can we_?'

* * *

Summer ordered Raikou to double-time it to the top of Mt Latolato so it only took them about eight minutes (and 48 seconds - Summer was _so_ not keeping track. _So_ not) to get to the Wireless Tower that was smoking from its top. Summer couldn't help but flash back to a day so similar when the Wireless Tower had begun smoking at its peak - it was the beginning of a nightmare: a horrific plot that was thankfully thwarted before anything bigger than Dolce Island could get damaged or people could get hurt.

There was one thing that was different this time though. Rather than Rand and a group of Pokémon Pinchers, it was Nema who appeared to be pacing back and forth in front of the worker's hut, waving her arms about and muttering to herself. The only bits Summer was able to catch was: "...and I did that because of _reasons_!...it's just plain _anfair_!..."

And there, pacing alongside Nema and trying to replicate her facial expression as much as possible, was Ukulele Pichu.

"Pichu!" Summer cried with delight. Pichu immediately stopped trying to copy Nema he jumped into Summer's arms with an excited babble. For some reason, Pichu was the only Pokémon she couldn't understand. She could even understand her Uncle Kellyn's partner Espeon Luna - and she was about an unusual a Pokémon as they came. But she tried not to question it - there was always a reason for something and maybe it wasn't her place to know why. Besides, with Forlorn in her head most of the time, she didn't really need any other permanent voices only she could hear.

"Summer! Summer! Oh thank Arceus! Summer!" Nema rushed forwards, grabbing Summer in a hug that nearly crushed her and almost squashed Pichu egg tween them. She then took a step back and began waving her arms about again. "We've been attacked by the worst creatures on this earth!"

Summer raised an eyebrow, Pichu shifting her arms. "Republicans?"

"No!" Nema practically screamed, but then calmed down as she looked like she was thinking. "Actually, I haven't a clue who they are. But they've already taken step one in 'How To Be An Evil Mastermind In Oblivia 101'!"

"Not following, Nema" Summer placed a free hand on the girl's shoulder to stop her from rambling.

Didn't really work.

"WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!" Nema practically screeched, waving her arm towards the top of the Wireless Tower "THEY BLEW THE TOP OF THE WIRELESS TOWER INTO ITTY-BITTY PIECES!"

Summer felt a mixture of alarmed and exasperated. The latter won out. "Seriously? We just fixed that thing."

"WELL SOMEBODY ELSE BROKE IT AGAIN!" Nema raged on.

"Inside voice, Nemie" Summer tried once again to calm her down whilst Pichu covered his ears, not happy at the explosion of sound coming out of Nema's mouth.

"BUT WE'RE NOT INSIDE!" Nema thundered on.

"Well, let's _go_ inside then" Summer tried a new approach, taking Nema's hand and pulling her towards the hut. "Where's Burkhart, can't he fix it?"

"He's on a honeymoon, again" Nema grumbled, opening the door into the hut because Pichu was struggling so Summer had her hands full. Eventually Summer just set him down on the ground. "Papa! Summer's here!"

Sure enough, Rand was alone inside the hut, sprawled over a familiar pair of blueprints for the Wireless Tower on the table. He looked up at the girls in the doorway and then looked down with an unimpressed huff. "Took you long enough."

Summer was pretty much stunned into silence at that. Rand was never, and I mean _never_, rude to her. Heck, he treated her like a little protege most of the time.

"Please don't mind Papa" Nema sighed "He's happy to see you really. It's just he's been in a bad mood since he woke up this morning and found there was a neon-green sign stuck to his bedroom door reading: 'Warning: Old People Ahead!'. I think that upset him more than whoever attacked us." Nema shook her head. "He has a worse temper than you when people joke about how old he is."

Summer folded her arms. "I do not have a bad temper."

Nema raised an eyebrow. "You threatened to kill Purple-Eyes and raised a weapon on him. I think that counts as a bad temper."

Summer was about to shoot back a disgruntled reply, but was cut off when the door behind them was yanked open and something shoved its way between Nema and Summer, pushing them apart as it speed-babbled and tore its way around the hut's single room in an utter panic.

Summer double blinked, hardly believing what she was seeing. "Nick?"

"—an now the zombies have bombed the Wireless Tower so we can't call for help as they tear us apart limb by limb and eat our brains whilst we all go into hiding like an episode of The Walking Dead and I'll be thrown to the zombies as bait because I can't fight and they'll—"

"Are you gonna stop him?" Summer asked, side-eyeing Nema.

"Nope" was Nema's blunt answer.

Summer looked at her oddly. "Is this the normal now?"

"Hmmm? What? Oh, not really, no" Nema shook her head when she finally caught onto the question "This is a quiet day actually."

"So are you saying in the few short weeks I've been gone cyborgs have invaded and the whole world's gone mad or something?" Summer couldn't really believe her.

"No, but we have to deal with Mr Conspiracy over there every day" Nema explained, nodding over at Nick "We invited him over to stay at Christmas because Booker wanted peace and quiet and Nick for some reason didn't want to spend it with his family, but it doesn't look like he has any intentions of leaving any time soon."

"I shall except that as normal as we have more pressing matters" Summer passed it off. She could worry about Nick, the fact that the Talga family had so many extra bedrooms and the fact she'd probably have to share a room with someone later. There were bigger Magikarp to fry. "Speaking of Nick, has he been here the whole time and I haven't seen him or something?"

"I texted him just before you came" Nema explained, holding up a mobile phone that could've easily passed for being, like, 100-years-old or something. "I mean, he kept on freaking out about what he was seeing back at the house with Mama and sending me frantic texts and calls every time a speck of dust moved and you weren't here yet and Papa's acting all moody and Ben's off in Narnia or something—"

Summer felt dread course through her and squeeze her heart painful. "Oh Lord Arceus! Ben! I almost forgot!"

She could've kicked herself. Rule number 1 in becoming a top ranger: always keep your eyes on your partner. Even if you'd just had a fight with said partner. The last time she'd taken her eyes off of Ben he'd been kidnapped and Arceus-knows-what had happened to him. She didn't want that to happen again - ever. That experience had changed the Ben she had known, and the thought of him changing again - becoming even more quiet and withdrawn - was absolutely stomach-churning. For a brief moment, she thought she was gonna be sick.

"Alright everyone!" Rand spoke up and beckoned everyone in the hut over to the table. Except Nick: he was too far gone into his zombie rant. Summer was thankful, because at least it got her mind off of Ben. "We have an attack plan."

"Do you think it's the Societea?" Summer asked, standing by the table but not sitting in case she needed to spring into action quickly.

"The lack of any Pinchers makes me doubt it" Rand explained "However, I will remain down here at the bad in case any do show up. Summer—" he looked around, as if searching for something. "No Ben?"

Summer winced, but tried not to show her pain at the statement. "He's taking his time."

Rand looked at her a bit oddly, but then shook his head continued. "Summer, you will have to make your way alone to the top of the Wireless Tower and report the damage. If you see anything or anyone up there, less me know on your styler."

"What about me Papa?" Nema offered "I could go with her."

Rand frowned at her immediately. "Absolutely not."

"Papa, c'mon!" Nema complained "I'll be fine! I'm not a little girl anymore!"

Summer could see the raging battle in Rand's eyes, a battle she'd seen before. By the time Summer was Nema's age, she'd already become a top ranger and been the key player in the quashing of the Societea and overall saviour of Olbivia. But this was his little girl, his Nema...

"Fine" he gave in, then sending Summer a familiar almost pleading look "Just, look after her, will you?"

"As always" Summer promised.

"Very well then" Rand nodded, then looking after at Nick, who was still ranting and pacing the floor so much he'd practically worn a hole in it. "Nick! You coming?!"

"—and after that they'll eat my—sorry, what?" Nick pricked his head up, looking over at Rand.

"Are you coming with us or staying here?" Summer asked.

Nick looked between Summer and Rand, his eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish. Finally he swallowed and whimpered: "I-I don't want to be alone!"

"Well you're coming with us then" Summer announced, inwardly wondering what she'd just got herself in to. This was, like, the B Team. Or heck, the C Team. With Nick along for the ride, maybe the Z Team.

"Alright then" Rand agreed to everyone's terms "Summer, you will take Nema and Nick up to the top of the Wireless Tower whilst I remain at the base to stop any intruders from entering. Nick, Nema, you stay close to Summer. Is that clear?"

And with that, everyone bought into Rand's leadership. It _was_ a fairly impressive show of control and authority. It was so inspiring, Summer half-expected him to be eaten by a shark. Anyone who has not seen the epic-ness that is Jaws will not understand that joke.

"Yes, sir" Summer nodded. It wasn't Ben, but it would have to do; she could worry about her missing partner later. "Alright team, let's move out!"


	4. The Tin People

**"What the heck happened to two and three?!"**

**"Nice to know my presence is appreciated!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Four - The Tin People**

Nema was calling them the TinMen.

Summer thought that she was joking.

Nema insisted she was _not_ joking.

Nick peed his pants.

"It is not a tin man, Nema" Summer whisper-sounded as she peered out from behind a couple of crates on the second floor.

"He totally is!" Nema whisper-shouted back, but closer to the shouting than the whispering. "He's wearing tin!"

"He's wearing plating on his chest and shoulders, that's all!" Summer insisted "Other than that he looks like a Butlins advert reject!"

Between the royal-blue waistcoat, the patterned white shirt, the silky-looking indigo trousers and that nice blue bowtie, he was probably the classiest grunt Summer had ever met. If you're gonna do evil, do it in style I guess. The only thing that made him look even slightly evil was the metal plating across his chest and shoulders with some sort of insignia near the left collar bone. And the fact he was baring the entrance to the stairs leading up to the third floor - that kinda gave it away.

"He's a TinMan!" Nema insisted "I get to name them this time! He's wearing tin and 'A Butlins-Shooter' doesn't exactly sound threatening! So TinMan it is!"

Summer was about to argue a thousand reasons why they could not call this supposed bad guy a 'TinMan' including the fact it was a downright insult to Mr L. Frank Baum himself, when Nick decided that would be an appropriate time to open his mouth to let out a scream. Thankfully Summer had her hand over his mouth (she was tempted to shove his orange bandana down his throat but the gagging would probably make too much noise) before he could let out a noise and she turned back to the 'TinMan' to see what had made Nick decided it was an appropriate idea to almost blow their cover.

Ah.

A woman was coming down the stairs to join him, Pidgey in tow. The woman ("A TinWoman!" "I am not calling her a TinWoman!" "She's a girl and she's wearing tin like he is! What do you think we should call her?! 'A Havens-Nator'?!") was dressed the same as the man, only she was wearing a pale-blue neckerchief rather than a bowtie, an indigo skirt that almost reached her knees rather than trousers and the tin plating around her chest area was curved for obvious reasons.

Still, Summer was _not_ calling her a 'TinWoman'.

The woman (not TinWoman) tapped the man on the shoulder, and he successfully jumped a mile into the air and had a panic attack before he realised who it was who had done so. Summer roles her eyes - grunts. Even the classy ones were thick as planks.

"What are they saying?!" Nema hissed, Summer waving the hand that wasn't on Nick's mouth in her direction in a commons to _shut up! _

The woman told the TinMan (oh Arceus, now even see was doing it!) something whistled twiddling a lock of her neck-length black hair. The man (not TinMan!) just simply nodded dumbly whilst she spoke before they both headed up the stairs to the next level, the Pidgey flying ahead of them. On the landing though, the TinWoman (darn it!) stopped and yanked her companion to a halt, brushing a Pidove feather out of his gelled-back dark hair before they ascended fully to the third floor.

"Do you think they're the ones who attacked us?" Nema asked, still whispering probably out of fear.

"If I know my grunts, probably not" Summer supplied, finally taking her hand off of Nick's mouth "They're probably just here for the sake of security - keeping people like us away from the hench honchos. They'll be at the top of the tower."

"How do you know that?" Nick whimpered.

Summer gave him an 'are you stupid?' look. "They're the bosses. Of course they're at the top of the tower. Where else would they be?"

"Oh" was all Nick replied with.

Summer had a grand plan to try and sneak up to the top of the tower with as little noise as possible. However there was one flaw trying to punch a hole in her wonderful plan: those electrical pipes.

The ones that electrocuted anyone who touched them.

Yeah, then.

"We all go at the same time" Summer announced, approaching the edge if the pipes with the others and crouching down in a runner's crouch. "Ok, I'll count to three, then run like hell." Nick and Nema nodded to show they understood, Nick nibbling at his lip in what looked like worry. Oh dear Arceus.

"Alright then" Summer composed herself, taking a deep breath. "One—"

Nick immediately jumped to his feet, tearing across the pipes at a speed Summer thought only Raikou could reach and getting across a split second before he would've become a human battery.

"What the heck happened to two and three?!" Summer called across to him, looking exasperated.

"I panicked!" was the response, but he didn't stop and just ran over the other set of pipes, seemingly have no control over his feet. Thankfully a support pillar strong enough to survive a sixteen-year-old crashing into it stopped him from running off the edge of the tower.

"Well, that's given away our cover" Summer sighed once she and Nema crossed the pipes and began creeping up the steps to the next level. "I guess we just have to hope they're deaf."

"If they're anything like the Pinchers, they probably are" Nema pointed out in a whisper, both the girls wincing at the loud thudding of Nick's boot soles on the metal steps. "I thought I was gong to have to learn smoke signals to get their attention they were so oblivious."

The three of them (plus Pichu) crouched behind a big container near the top of the steps, Summer peering over the top of it. She could see the two TinMen (oh forget it, TinMen it was!) near the centre of the floor, arguing. Or at least, the TinWoman was arguing - the TinMan just nodded at her yelling and once or twice tried to interject, only to back down. A Pidgey and a Bidoof were at their feet, and in a similar fashion to their owners, the Pidgey was seemingly messing with the Bidoof's fur.

"Well this is the most ragtag team since the Ghostbusters" Summer muttered.

"Where?! I can't see!" Nema tried to get to her feet, not being able to crouch like Summer, but in an attempt to get her balance accidentally stepped on Nick's foot. He yelped and shoved her on impulse, causing her to hit the container with a clang.

Summer winced. Well that gave their position away.

"BUT WHAT IF IT'S A GHOST?!" At first Summer thought it was Nick who yelled that, but a glance at him showed he was absolutely frozen with fear. Peeping over the container, she could see the TinWoman had grabbed her male companion by his shoulders and was pushing him towards them.

"Well I'm telling you it's not! So get your butt over there and capture whatever Pokémon it is!" She gave the TinMan a hard shove over some of the pipes that were thankfully not buzzing with electricity.

The TinMan gulped, looking like a dog with his tail between his legs as he trudged towards them with his Bidoof.

Summer hurriedly ducked behind the container. "He's coming over, get ready!"

"Oh no! Could it be?! This 'TinMen' is actually a vampire alien for the planet Zog and—"

Nick's voice was drowned out in the back of Summer's mind as the Bidoof peered around the corner of the container, blinking in surprise these strange new people. Summer raised her arm to activate her capture styler, but before she could get the chance to, Pichu zapped the Bidoof. It instantly fainted. Probably would've only taken one loop.

Because she was so surprised by how weak the Bidoof was, Summer didn't look until she heard a "Hee-ya!"

She looked up just in time to see the TinMan collapse, stars swirling in his eyes, with Nema sitting down after kicking a karate's chop to the back of his head. After being kidnapped by Purple-Eyes, it appeared her new self-defence skills were paying off.

Nick boggled at her. "What the heck was that?"

"Wushu" Nema declared, dusting her hands off for some reason, which was kinda odd because usually kicks didn't involve your hands so Nick fretted she may have some radioactive bacteria on them. "The ancient Oblivian art of whoop ass!"

"Psst!" Summer hissed, scoping the floor before them from over the top of the container. "Would you keep it down!"

"Well maybe we could move faster and a bit quieter if Aladdin over there—!" Nema glared across at Nick. "Took the metal off those boots and wore more sensible trousers!"

Nick glanced down at his orange ballon pants—er, I mean _shorts_. "They're _shorts_."

Nema gave him _the look_. "In what life?"

"Hey! What are you doing over there?! It doesn't take a year to investigate a noise!"

Oh great, here comes the TinWoman. Summer ducked down again.

"Hey! I see you!" Summer winced as the TinWoman screeched. "Come out and I might not hurt you!"

"**Listen to her Summer, she says she ****_might_**** not hurt you!**"

'_Shut up Forlorn, if she's as weak as her partner I'm more than alright_!' Summer growled with that thought. Something about Forlorn's voice built up anger within her. With a blast of wind from the south, she flipped the container out of the way and fired her capture styler towards the Pidgey coming towards her. It took only two loops to catch it.

Though she couldn't see it, Nick and Nema behind her had their jaws in the floor. Even Pichu was quite stunned - he'd never seen her use her psychic powers so forcefully. In fact she was very reluctant to use them in a ranger setting at all, more so for moving obstacles out of the way.

The TinWoman too looked at her in utter shock, her knees shaking slightly.

Summer shot her a grin before she ran towards the next set of steps, Nick and Nema hot on her heels. "Namaste!_"_

* * *

For a second, Summer thought she could see Blue-Eyes at the top of the Wireless Tower. Turns out she wasn't so lucky.

Lying flat against the steps just before the top of the tower, she could see a female who was obviously not a TinWoman walking around. But then Summer realised she had bubblegum-pink hair in a pair of small bunches and it clearly wasn't Blue-Eyes.

Nor was she alone.

Up with her was a male, also not a TinMan. He had dark hair like the minions, but rather than gelled back, it was long and straggly. Like the woman, he was wearing a leather jacket and matching trousers (his in black, hers in dark-green) and a pair of knee-high boots. All in all, they looked like a biker pair to be frankly honest. Their only Pokémon was a Pidgeot that hovered above the boy, so they must be fairly confident they had brought enough TinMen. After going through eight of them, Summer yet they had seriously misjudged her. She'd faced _Mewtwo_ for crying out loud!

"It looks damaged" the woman declared, looking at the spire that gave the Wireless Tower it's signal. Sure enough, it was tilted on an angle, the base busted and sparking. It was oddly reminiscent of the last time she'd been up here and Raikou had gone crazy. Now though, rather than as legendary Pokémon, the culprit was obviously the remnants of a laser beam on the side of the damaged base of the spire.

"Looks damaged yeah, but you can't hit anything, so we might wanna test it first" the boy (judging by the fact his voice wasn't completely broken, Summer guessed he was in his late teens) replied.

"Can't hit anything?!" The woman retorted, fluffing up like an angry mogey "What are you trying to suggest?!"

If Summer had to guess, she wanted to bet the boy rolled his eyes. "Just break out the radio and do the test."

The woman huffed and walked away. She walked over to what looked like two semi-circle pods with flat bases lying on the roof, only they were Carley meant for sitting in one the face of each of them had been peeled back. Leaning inside one, the woman dug out a hand-held radio and put up the aerial. After fiddling with the knobs on the front for a few seconds, it was clear all that was coming out was static.

"Nothing, it's bust" the woman finally declared.

"Okay, so round up everyone and leave?" The man suggested "The last thing we need is that flaming Raikou after us. Sooner we get off this stupid tower the better."

The woman shuddered and opened her mouth, maybe to agree, but was shut off by a whirring sound. To Nema and Nick, it was scarily similar to that of the object that had attacked the Talga home. A third pod sudden to came up alongside the tower, and the three of them pressed their bodies into the stairs more to make sure they weren't seen. The face of the pod, still hovering in midair, peeled upwards and they could see what appeared to be a blond-haired boy, about 17 or so, sitting in the pod clutching to control sticks.

"TauAlpha, RhoOmega, you are both to leave immediately. RhoOmega, you are to return to Base. TauAlpha, you are to take control over at HyakuJûRoku and select a bargaining, preferably young. MuIota will meet you there. These are direct orders from Base. There have been ranger spotted in this vicinity."

The boy and woman on the roof looked alarmed. Seeing all their faces for the first time, Summer reacted quickly and took a photo of the three of them. Now she had profiles of two who had caused all the commotion and a full-on portrait of the blond-boy.

The woman looked at her companion. "I thought you dealt with them."

"I didn't wanna kill 'em!" The boy protested.

The woman rolled her eyes, holding a hand up to the floating pod, clearly telling its driver not to move. "Whatever. Hold up Ace, I'll need coordinates! I don't trust Misha to stay in his seat let alone in one place."

She strode across to one of the pods and got in, the face sliding down to seal her in. The pod hummed and lifted into the air before the pair of them zoomed off towards the horizon.

The boy sighed and shook his head before strolling towards where his pod was, motioning for his Pidgeot to follow him. Summer hurriedly realised this may be her last chance to get answers out of these guys, as clearly this guy was some-what in charge.

"Wait!" she yelped, jumping up and stopping the boy in his tracks. Nema and Nick remained flattened against the stairs, not daring to move until Summer said so. This was something they didn't sign up for.

"Googles, yellow scarf...what did?..." The boy gave her a calculated look. Then his eyes widened briefly before they narrowed. "You're not supposed to be back yet."

"Well excuse me!" Summer scoffed "Nice to know my presence is appreciated! I had to fight my way through eight of your grunts to get up here and darn well nearly threw one of them off this 'stupid tower'!"

He looked alarmed by the fact she put emphasis on the words he himself had spoken only minute before. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough!" Summer growled "Enough to know you're a part of destroying property of the Ranger Union! You better have a darn good reason why!"

Pichu chimed in, probably throwing out trash talk. That's if the Pidgeot's reply was any indication, and Summer was quite shocked a Pokémon knew words like that.

The boy bristled, raising his chin to make himself look bigger (enough though there was really no reason - he was taller than Nick and Summer only just reached _his_ shoulder) as if staring down an approaching beast in the arena. "You think just because you took down the Societea and their feeble-minded plan you stand a chance against us. Well Ranger, you're wrong. In just a few days, the world will be in the palms of our hands and you will be begging for forgiveness."

"Unlikely to happen!" Summer shot back.

The boy sent her a miffed glance and motioned at his Pidgeot to attack. The Pidgeot darted forwards and swung out it's claws with a squawk (Summer didn't catch what it had said). Before Summer could react with her capture styler, one of its talons scraped her arm. Her screech of pain as she fell to her knees, clutching her arms as she felt blood well to the surface, covered up the sound of Pichu zapping the Pidgeot away and the battle of words the two had, including Pichu waving his guitar at the offender.

"Summer, are you okay?!" she heard Nick come to kneel beside her, his voice near hysteric. "Are you hurt?! Are you dying?! How many fingers am I holding up?!"

Summer shifted her head to look at him, noticing his hands were planted firmly on the ground and therefore lacking the crucial element in telling him how many fingers he was holding up.

"I'm fine" she replied through gritted teeth. Thanks to her dad, she'd been getting into tonnes or scrapes since she was little - she could cope with a scratched arm.

She got to her feet, glaring at the boy as the Pidgeot circled around the tower, clearly ready to attack again, just waiting for an opportunity.

"Jus you wait and see, Ranger" the boy warned "My name is Rohoneigh. Remember it well, for you'll be chanting it alongside others as you cower at our feet."

She missed Pichu zapping the Pidgeot away again as it came in for another strike as Rohoneigh ignored Nema's yelling at him (she was hurling all sorts of abuse at him about being a coward and unfair and to get back here this minute buster before she caught him and rearranged his face!) and crossed the roof to reach his pod. In a few seconds, he was zooming north-west rather than east like the others.

As Summer tied a spare bandage around her arm to stop the blood, she thought about summoning Latias and going after him. But somehow she knew by the time she got up in the air he'd be gone. This new threat seemed more deadly, more dangerous than anything she'd come across before. She wasn't sure how, but she could feel it.

"**Incoming!**"

'_You're not helping, Forlorn_' her brain supplied as she turned on her heels to deal with that darn Pidgeot. Once she caught that thing, first thing she would do was wash it's mouth out with soap. _Good_ soap. It needed it.

* * *

In this room was close to nothing. Only a long hallway with a red carpet down the middle. At the end of the carpet were some steps going up to what looked like a throne. Sat in the throne, the figure covered in what looked like fine robes was cloaked by darkness. A second figure, cloaked in white clothes, was leaning against the throne, his features visibly calm and collected.

Rohoneigh entered the double doors that opened before him, striding down the red carpet like he and done so many times before. At the end he dropped into a practiced kneel, only looking up when he heard a slight shift from the robes of the figure in the throne.

"Sir, the attack on the Wireless Tower was success, the rangers should no longer be able to communicate with their home base" Rohoneigh reported, like a faithful spy might to a king "However, it appears the ranger Summer Dazuru has arrived earlier than we expected."

The figure leaning against the throne stiffened, looking down at his superior in the throne for reassurance. "Sir?"

Rohoneigh shuddered as he could almost feel his leader's lips twitch into a smirk, and he wished he was anywhere but there at that moment.

"Interesting. How very interesting."


	5. So far apart

**"No, I had ketchup thrown at me. What do you think Ben?"**

**"****Talking to crazies? That says a lot about you."**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Five - So far apart**

Whenever you meet a new group of thugs or trouble makers, you always remember your first grunt. That's what every ranger says, including Summer. So Summer knew by instinct the TinMan in Rand's fierce grip was the same TinMan who Nema had karate chopped. Rand had got him by the collar wasn't letting him go.

"Let me go! Let me go!" the TinMan was bawling hysterically, flailing to get free "I'm too young to die!"

"Nick, I've found your estranged twin" Rand reported when he saw Summer, Nema and Nick finally clamber down to the bottom of the Wireless Tower.

"Huh? Twin? I have a twin!" Nick immediately began to panic "Oh no! Could it be! I was secretly cloned at birth and had no clue and now the TinMen are using clones of me to do their evil doings and—!"

"Clones? TinMen? What?" Rand looked absolutely baffled "Would somebody please tell me what's going on?!"

"You've caught a TinMan!" Nema declared.

Two down, one to go; Rand looked at Summer. "Have you lost your mind as well?"

"No, Nema insisted on calling them that" Summer explained "Presenting the newest breed of grunt: the TinMen."

Rand cast a questioning glance at the TinMan, who was still howling hysterically. "O-Kay. So these were the guys who attacked us?"

"And damaged the Wireless Tower again - shot it out" Summer explained "But these are just the grunts, the hench-honko left."

"Who? Red-Eyes? Someone we know?" Rand asked.

"No, he had an even sillier name" Nema clarified "I can't pronounce it."

"Rohoneigh" Summer clarified "And there was a woman up there with him. And some guy called Ace. And they mentioned someone else too."

"Misha?" Nema tried, unable to completely recall the name.

"Maybe, it all went so fast" Summer bit the inside of her mouth "Oh! Wait! I got a picture of them! I'll send it to Leanne!" She turned to her styler, ready to send to command to send the picture to the Talga family printer at home.

'_**Sending! Sending! Picture sent to Leanne! Sent!**_' The styler read out.

"It reads my mind, I swear" Summer chuckled.

However, they were so busy fawning over Summer's styler and their new enemies' names they didn't notice someone creeping up behind Rand.

"Let go of Aulis you jerk!" rang out at the exact same time as a steel-toed boot connected with the back of Rand's leg. He yelled and let go of the TinMan who grabbed the wrist of his rescuer: the TinWonan who'd been accompanying him on the Wireless Tower.

"Go go go go go!" The TinMan yelled and the two of them barrelled down the mountain, nearly knocking over someone coming up it.

"Do we go after them?" Nema asked.

"Do we have to?" Nick whimpered, not keen on the idea of meeting someone who he'd got into his head was one of his evil clones.

"If they're just grunts, no" Rand decided "Last time we tried chasing grunts the Booker Bridge was bombed. No need to cause something like that again."

"Okay, would someone please tell me why a pair of waiters just tried to kill me back there?"

Summer head pricked up at the familiar voice. "Ben?"

"**_One idiot delivered_**" Ben's partner Staraptor called from where she was circling overhead.

"Hey Summer" Ben grinned sheepishly, raising a hand in hello.

Summer pushed past the rest of the group, everyone expecting her to grab Ben in a big hug. But instead she gave him a hard shove that almost knocked him over, her face red with rage. "Where in Latios' name have you been?! There are maniacs attacking the region! I was scared you were dead! Where were you?!"

"_**Sulking the old mansion**_" Staraptor declared.

Ben raised an eyebrow in challenge. "Yes Summer, I was concerned for you too. Sorry about what happened for. Great to see you again."

Summer folded her arms, shifting uncomfortably. "Well you could've called."

"I sent you a text" Ben responded.

Summer raised an eyebrow. "No you didn't."

As if cued, Summer's styler shuddered and chirped up with: "_**Alert! New message from Ben! Alert! New message from Ben!**_".

"There you go" Ben looked at her smugly "It's not my fault I'm faster than the speed of cellular."

Summer sighed, rolling her eye as she did so. "How did you get here 'so fast' anyway?"

Ben looked at her strangely, as if questioning how she didn't understand it. "What flies when they're on and float when they're off?"

"Feathers - when since did you get so smart?" Summer grinned, whacking him good-naturedly over the head "So, you flew here?"

"I have a Staraptor for a partner, Summer - no I swam" Ben retorted back, voice laden with sarcasm. Then he caught sight of Summer's arm and his eyes bugged out. "Oh Arceus! Is that blood?!"

Summer glanced down at her arm and frowned as she realised she'd forgotten about the blood-stained bandage in her arm. "No, I had ketchup thrown at me. What do you think Ben?" The Pidgeot that had got her was still a sore topic after the darn thing had flown off after it's master before she could capture it.

"Okay, no need to get so snarky" Ben's face immediately fell into impassiveness, as he started to retreat into himself a bit. Summer winced - she should've known better. Now Ben was on the defensive any playful sarcasm that would follow was now significantly less playful. Was it just her, or had his mood swings gotten significantly worse since arriving in Oblivia - and they'd only been there a few hours! Must be the heat.

"Sorry" he muttered "Anyway, you're a bit late for the fireworks." She gestured towards the smoking Wireless Tower.

"They blew up the wireless tower again?!" Ben looked halfway between furious and exasperated. "Seriously, what is it with all these evil people and blowing up the flaming tower?!"

"I don't know Ben, why don't you ask them?" Summer retorted before she could stop herself. She really needed to get it her head that when Ben's mood flipped on its head, that meant all sarcasm stopped.

"Oh yeah, because separating and hanging with the bad guys really worked for us late time, right?" Ben shot back.

Summer winced again, mentally trying to work out a way to calm Ben down before he caused a scene. Whatever had happened to him when they were last separated in Oblivia had scarred him in ways Summer was still unsure of, and him bringing it up so nonchalantly was just adding salt to the wound of loosing the boy her partner had once been.

"So the tower's bust" Ben repeated, waving his arm in the general direction of the Wireless Tower "So we can't communicate with Almia or the Union now Murph's left with it."

"Pretty much" Summer nodded "They knocked the spire out if place."

"Well couldn't you just knock it back, probably solved" Ben snorted, mock-pushing thin air to the side if him as if to demonstrate.

Summer gritted her teeth, _really_ starting to get sick of Ben's attitude. "One, a _laser beam_ shot it over, they didn't push it. It's not that simple. Two, if I used Entei he'd probably knock it completely off. Three, I have no upper body strength."

Ben sniffed dismissively. "You have no _lower_ body strength either."

"Was that supposed to suggest something?" Nick whimpered to Nema, clearly getting nervous at the rising tension. Even Rand had decided to check the Wireless Tower for himself to get away from the quarrellers.

"No idea" Nema shrugged.

"Okay, that's it!" Summer finally snapped "What is your problem?! Ever since we got here you've been PMS-ing harder than a teenage girl and acting like someone out of Mean Girls! And I know I put up with a lot of stuff you throw my way, but this I going to far! Yes you were kidnapped! Yes I know it scarred you a bit! But that doesn't mean you can take it out on me!"

"Oh yes, because you know everything, don't you Summer?" Ben immediately shot back, once lividly features twisted into a snarl. "You know exactly what it's like to be kidnapped and held at ransom for three whole days, don't you? And of course you know how loving and supporting my wonderful family were as you woke up screaming each night, only to be told 'I told you so' and to be downtrodden from the day you learnt what free-thinking was! Because you're Summer Linda Dazuru - the little princess of the Ranger Union. Loved by all, everyone adores you, you get whatever you want and the best part is, you can do your job and actually come out relatively sane! You just get to romance around as the new Hero of Oblivia with your wonderful top ranger daddy and are so happy all the time that you manage to look past the fact that you're a nosy, bossy, Miss Know-it-all with no idea what privacy is! So of you think poor, mentally-abused, insane Ben is best, here's an idea for her Your Highness: take a look in the damn mirror!"

Summer tried. She honestly tried. She tried telling herself Ben didn't mean it, that it was his inexplicably raised defences talking for him, but his usually warm brown eyes were full of malice and the words intended to harm had had their full effect.

She needed to calm down. She needed to get away. Before _she_ punched someone.

"I'm going for a walk" she announced in the quietest, levelest voice she could manage "I hope you've grown up but he time I've got back."

And with that shot Ben once last glare, collected herself and then briskly headed towards the mountain path towards the rest of Renbow Island.

With no Summer to glare at, Ben swung his harsh gaze on Nick and Nema. The younger of the two hastily babbled: "I'll-I'll call Mama. Let her know we're all okay."

She hastily zipped into the hut, leaving only two people left at the base of the Wireless Tower.

Nick just kept staring at Ben like a deer in headlights.

"What?!" Ben demanded, really not in the mood to deal with one of Nick's rants now.

"Dude, if you ever turn to the dark side, we are all screwed."

* * *

Over a period of time that included a walk all the way down to the top of Lapras Beach in time for the sunset, Summer's temper relaxed marginally and her expression dropped from apocalyptic to just nuclear.

Over the past two years and a half, Summer had grown used to Ben's fairly erratic mood swings. She could only guess it was some sort of reaction to being kidnapped and held for ransom, so she gave him as much leeway as she could. But screaming insults in her face was a proverbial step over the metaphorical line.

'_You know how they say sunset are supposed to be calming_?' Summer couldn't help but think '_Well, they're wrong. __**Walks **o__n the other hand are the best._'

"**Amen**" Well, what do you know, there _is_ something that she and Forlorn could agree on. This must've been what it was like when she was young and they were actually friends rather than throwing insults at each other.

"**By the way, your boyfriend's a jerk**" Forlorn added.

'_Disregarding the fact you called Ben my boyfriend **again**, he is being rather immature_' Summer agreed, correcting him on this subject _again_. For the last time she had no romantic interest in her partner.

"**Rather immature is not what you were thinking a few minutes ago**" Forlorn just had to push it, didn't he. "**I believe the thought track was something along the lines of stupid, whiny, PMS-ing basta—**"

"Col, seriously, c'mon. He's not here."

"I'm not going! Not 'till I check it one last time. He loves beaches."

"Did you not see the explosion! Aliens are invading and you insist on conquering this darn scavenger hunt!"

Summer tuned out the rest of Forlorn's response as Pichu turned his head towards the voices, staring at whoever was having the conversation. Summer copied him, frowning as she failed to recognise these individuals. Apparently Forlorn had a comment for that too.

"**Oh dear Latias! It's a hippie pride parade!**"

'_I don't think they're hippies_' Summer responded '_They're just...wearing brightly-coloured clothing_.'

Understatement of the year.

They were both girls, about 16 or 17 or so. One was brunette, the other was blonde with died pink streaks in it. Both were tanned like most Oblivians. The blonde wore and as torment of white, luminous yellow and shocking pink clothes whilst the brunette wore a luminous orange dress with flower patterns on it and a pair of leggings that - being brown - were probably the most normal piece of clothing within forty feet of the pair of them. Between the pair of them they were also wearing what had to be at least 400 bangles, necklaces and pendants. The blonde wore knee-high patent yellow boots and a sour and frustrated expression whilst her brunette companion was holding her sandals in her hands and was looking...pensive. Searching for something.

Well, they were not from Renbow Island, that was for sure. If they were from anywhere in Oblivia, it would have to be Sophian Island. Maybe they were tourists or something.

"I'm not leaving until I know for certain, Remi" the brunette insisted, looking down the beach.

"We're already walked around this island twice!" 'Remi' protested "He's not here! He's not on Mitonga! And he's most certainly not on Layuda! Face it - he's probably moved on! Can we go home now?!"

"He's still here! He's in Oblivia! I just know it!" the other girl put it straight "He wouldn't leave - he promised! I need to know he's okay!"

"C'mon, we're going to miss our boat! Stop being all stubborn and pissy!" Remi complained.

Her friend rolled her eyes, and shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder how it's possible that a charming personality as yourself can have zero friends and then you open your mouth and words come out and I remember."

Remi sighed, her eyes drooping with what looked like exasperation and a little heartache. "Col, plea—"

"It's Colette, thank you very much" the other girl folded her arms, refusing to look at Remi. "It's the name I was born with, and I would prefer it if you could struggle along to the end."

"If you quote Sherlock at me again, I will leave you here" Remi fixed her with a glare. Colette fixed her with a look Summer couldn't see from where she was standing, but whatever it was it made Remi slump her shoulders and sigh. "Okay, I'll wait on the boat. Meet me there, alright? Of you're not back at Tilt Village in half an hour, I will tell the captain to leave you behind, screw your father. Okay?"

"Right, okay" Colette nodded absentmindedly, wandering towards the water. It didn't sound like she'd heard a word.

Remi rolled her eyes. "Half an hour, alright?! Be there!"

And with that (as Forlorn had dubbed her) "Technicolor Girl" turned and headed back towards Curl Bay.

Summer studied the remaining girl - Colette - for a minute or so, watching her walk towards the waves but stop before they reached her, her gaze fixed on the oceans that had turned an orangish-red in the sunset. Summer couldn't help but feel a little concerned for her, and felt the need to check on her, just to make sure she was okay.

"Excuse me" Summer walked over to her and got her attention, ignoring Forlorn's comment of:

"**Talking to crazies? That says a lot about you.**"

"Oh, hi" Colette greeted her in a quiet voice. She scanned Summer's attire and her green eyes widened. "Oh, you're a ranger."

"Top ranger Summer, at your service" Summer joked, throwing in a mock bow for effect.

"Colette Weber, I live with my father on Sophian Island" Colette explained "I hadn't heard you were back yet - I thought you were still at home."

"Yes, apparently everyone thinks that" Summer let out a humourless chuckle. She jerked her head towards Mt Latolato and the Wireless Tower. "You know what happened up there?"

"No, my friend Remi thought it was those UFOs again, but I didn't see anything myself" Colette explained "I just came here to find someone."

"Anything I can help with?" Summer asked, wondering if Colette had a quest for her.

"No, I just need to know if you've seen Casey?" Colette asked "He's got dark hair, dark eyes, _really_ tanned skin, about 5'7", probably has a leather jacket. Have you seen him?"

"No, sorry" Summer shook her head "Does he have a last name?"

"Probably, but I can't pronounce it" Colette looked a little awkward at that statement "I can't pronounce his first name either."

Summer did a double take. "Come again?"

"Casey's from the Orange Islands" Colette explained "He's from one of the tribes there. He left when the tribe started fighting and ended up washing up on Sophian Island. We took him in, gave him a home, but no one could pronounce his name. So the elders gathered and they decided to name him Casey - after the Casewood Tree."

"The Casewood Tree?" Summer had heard of many things in Oblivia, but this she'd never heard of before. A new tree species perhaps?

"The legend of the Casewood Tree tells of an enormous tree that grew from the ocean" Colette explained "Casey came from the ocean - so they named him after the Casewood Tree."

"Oh, okay" Summer nodded, accepting this strange fact.

"And then he left" Colette dropped her head "It was only a few days until our anniversary, but he just vanished." She clutched her sandals tightly in her hands, looking pained to be talking about this. "I know he wouldn't leave Oblivia - he promised he wouldn't. He said he was going to help take over my dad's business. He promised! He...He—!"

"Okay, okay" Summer quickly tried to calm her down as Colette looked close to tears. "So, you haven't seen him since how long?"

"He didn't turn up for Halloween - his costume was still in his room" Colette explained "We were supposed to go trick-or-treating."

"So two to three months" Summer clarified "You know what, I'll contact my fellow rangers, see if they've seen him. I'll also call into the Ranger Union in Almia and ask them to check if anyone matching his description arrived in other regions."

After the last time the Wireless Tower was destroyed, Rand had purchased a weak radio and transmitter in case if emergencies. However, it was it if batteries and had been for months so Summer knew someone was gong to have to fly over to the store on Sophian Island to get some before any message could be sent to the Ranger Union.

Colette's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "You could do that? You could help?"

"Sure" Summer sent her a comforting smile, Pichu babbling some sort of encouragement at her feet. "I'll do whatever I can to help."

She didn't want Colette to know her suspicions, but she couldn't help but think that with this Casey kid disappearing and a whole new threat of bad guys turning up in such a short period of time, these two incidences were connected. Her unspoken fear was if these bad guys - TinMen - had taken Casey hostage. Just thinking about Ben two and a half years after his abduction and the way it still affected him was enough to make her swear that she would do everything in her power to make sure no one - whether it be Casey or anybody else - ever went through what her partner did.

* * *

Ben looked absolutely awful. In fact he looked like he was going to be sick. In the minutes after Summer had left he'd been fine, if not ranted and raged to the world a bit. But after a few minutes, like a switch flipping, with no warning at all he turned a horrible shade of white and began to wail and bawl hysterically. After Rand and Nema had got him to calm down to the point he was actually aware there were other people surrounding him, they insisted he went back to the Talga home and collect himself a bit before Summer got back. However Ben protested he just wanted to sweep the area one last time with Nema whilst Nick and Rand headed back to see if Leanne had received the picture Summer sent her. The remaining two were headed back just in time for sunset and, hopefully, dinner.

Ben and Nema walked side-by-side down the mountain trail towards the Talga home, neither saying anything. In fact, Ben hadn't said much of anything since his weird breakdown. He just trudged along with his hands in his pockets and his jacket uncharacteristically zipped up to his chin, eyes on the ground. The silence unnerved Nema.

"So, are we going to talk about it?" she asked, breaking the ice. She too was curious to know why Ben had apparently been flipping out so much since arriving back in Oblivia, and why he hadn't been with Summer when she arrived. Had they had a fight prior to that?

"No" was the immediate and only answer she received.

That was plainly it. Done. Final. Do not press for more. He wasn't going to talk about it. Certainly not now.

"O-Okay" Nema nodded carefully, not wanting to set him off like Summer had. Instead she tried to engage in small-talk. "So, I watched the finale of Warehouse 13 the other day."

"Oh, was it good?" Ben asked, not particularly interested but he'd been rude enough to people that day.

"Yeah, it think so" Nema shrugged "Nick nearly went into cardiac arrest watching it though."

"Surely he doesn't panic that easily?" Ben double-blinked. Sure he knew Nick wasn't the most stable person on the planet, but this was getting a bit ridiculous. Should they start investing in anxiety pills?

"Oh he does" Nema confirmed "I once took him to a shopping centre in Hoenn and watched him nearly have a breakdown after pushing a 'pull' door for a solid eight minutes. It's concerning."

Just then, a blazing honk from what sounded like the world's biggest bugle ripped across Renbow Island and probably most of Mitonga too. Ben's Staraptor circling above them wailed as if she was in pain. She probably was.

"I wish Leanne would stop announcing dinner like we're going off to war" Ben sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Well Mama doesn't get out of the house enough - this is her daily source of entertainment" Nema sighed. It was rumoured Leanne had cameras all over the island to capture the inhabitants' reactions to her daily bugle deafening.

The pair had just reach the front door and were halfway to opening it when they were thrown aside by a hurricane. Hurricane Summer.

If it was any consolation, Ukulele Pichu looked rather apologetic.

Inside the house, everyone looked startled as Summer raced inside yelling: "We're going to Mitonga!"

Rand appeared to be halfway through a steak that was so rare a decent enough vet could probably _revive_ the poor thing. Leanne was cooking something in a frying pan - perhaps more normal steak. Finally Nick was also sitting at the table with Rand and looking vaguely befuddled.

This meant little. Nick often looked befuddled.

"Well, you're alive" Leanne commented with a little pleased smile.

"We were getting worried" Rand commented "I was just about to send Nick out looking for you."

"You were?!" Nick yelped, looking absolutely appalled by this betrayal concerning Nick's safety of walking around a scarcely-populated island he'd grown up on in the dark.

"Are you serious?!" Summer rolled her eyes exasperatingly "It was a walk! Not a hike to Mount Layuda!"

"There's nothing wrong with being worried, Summer" Ben commented as he stepped inside the house. The pair made eye-contact and held it for a few seconds, but they eventually looked away. The tension in the air said it all, and they both knew the other needed some space to sort out their own stuff before they could talk.

"What's this about Mitonga?" Nema asked, entering the house and looking like a cartoon character with little duckies surrounding her head. Summer winced - she didn't think she'd shoved Nema _that_ hard.

"That's where we're going tomorrow" Summer announced "We'll go to Mitonga Island to search for a lead about these TinMen, and Rand, if you go get those batteries for the transmitter we can call Almia when we get back."

"Sure, I'll play errand boy" Rand rolled his eyes, cutting up more of his steak "Once the head area ranger in the region, now I've been demoted by people a third of my age."

"Oh Papa, don't you worry" Nema grinned, taking a seat at the table next to him "I'll stay at home and help you out with the radio-transmitter."

"I don't need help fixing a radio" Rand grunted, popping a piece if the red meat into his mouth.

"Papa, you haven't worked out how to fix the DVD player when it breaks down" Nema sighed with a laugh.

Summer lighted also as she sat down opposite Nick, but stopped when Ben also sat down opposite her. The air between them was once again awkward, but Summer sent him a nervous smile that Ben returned. Nothing was said, but at the same time everything was. There was an understanding - don't say anything until we're both ready.

They'd only been back in Oblivia a day, and already Summer felt she and Ben had never been so far apart.


	6. Who says adults are grown up?

**"The clicker isn't working."**

**"****Honestly! Men and machines!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Six - Who says adults are grown up?**

There are two things that you need to know about Kellyn Hajime before you perhaps understand why Kate and Kanna are bolting through the Ranger Union like Raikou's on their tail, Shadow passed out in Kate's arms and Kanna's Vaporeon looking like a grey house on race day.

Which, to be honest, is kinda tame compared to most of the shenanigans that took place around the Ranger Union on a daily basis - at least there was less fire and explosions and people being assaulted with deadly weapons.

**One:** People like him. Why is a complete mystery to the universe on Keith's part, as Kellyn was far from the bubbly, smily, perfect little ray of sunshine he had been during his youth. Because some time around 16 or 17, puberty hit - Kellyn's voice dropped only about one notch down the scale, he grew about a foot in eight months and started angsting hard enough to make the average optimist start hoarding toilet paper for the inevitable apocalypse if they stay in a room with him for more than a minute (Keith swore Kellyn and Luna were soulmates by this point). But for some reason, despite having a reputation for being one of the grumpiest rangers in the Union if not the world, people seemed to like him - possibly because in spite of the fact he was 6'2" (Keith had actually wept from the unfairness of it all the day Kellyn hit 6') and had celebrated his 38th birthday last Halloween (well, celebrated was a bit of a strong word) - his actual birthdate they later discovered, which really just made Keith's day - all the girls seemed to find him adorable, much to Kate and most likely Kellyn's chagrin. But for this reason, when the Operators scheduled a weekend away, it was Kellyn they left in charge of their computers, as well as a few interns. Giving Kellyn access to a speaker system and the ability to broadcast messages to any Top Ranger he wanted hadn't gone down very well so well so far.

**Two: **If he wanted you to be somewhere, you had to be there _right at that very moment_ he declared it. Kate was the exception - she could be fashionably late and he wouldn't bat an eyelid - but she was the _only_ exception. Keith completely disregarded this little quirk of Kellyn's and referred to it as the first step to becoming a paranoid bastard, which hadn't gone down very well either. But Keith was well known to arrive late just to get a rise out of Kellyn, hence why _he's_ strolling along Union Road like he hasn't got a care if the world (he did though - he'd already contacted the towing service three times since they towed his bike away that morning and they'd put him on hold, again).

**Three:** He's no good with alcohol - like, first timer no good. He can barely take a sip without it coming up again, so he's only really managed to get properly drunk three times in his life - that 'dorm party' when he was fifteen, his twenty-first birthday and last Thursday's goodbye party, though he wasn't sure why he'd gotten so drunk that last time when his own wedding had been alcohol free. He just blamed Keith - it did wonders for his sanity to just pin everything on the ginger. Another problem though, was that none of the best hangover cures worked for him, so it was probably good he didn't get drunk often. The only thing that could sometimes ease the migraine a bit was hot lemon water, which he was gulping down even though it look scalding.

"Where is it?!" Kanna yelped as she raced up onto the Operators' floor.

Kellyn blinked blearily at them, his hangover of two days so far making his mind fuzzy still. "Where's what?"

"The emergency!" Kanna spluttered, stuttering slightly in her distress "Where?! Where is the runway train?! Where is the rampaging Rampados?! The woman having a heart attack?! The dying Mightyena?! Luna giving birth?! You giving birth?! What are we here for?!"

Luna snorted in disgust a bit at the foot of Kellyn's computer seat - she'd gone through the whole labour thing one and that was once enough!

"Well, I thought you wanted to talk to your daughter, see if she hasn't been eaten by the Olbivian wildlife" Kellyn explained, turning his seat sideways so they could see the large monitor with the camera on top. At that present moment, the screen only showed the homepage.

"That's all?!" Kanna complained - even Kate was looking a bit disappointed "You said it was emergency!"

"It is an emergency!" Kellyn protested, holding up the computer mouse and clicking it "The clicker isn't working."

"Well it won't if you keep waving it around like that" Kate sighed, trying to let go of as much frustration as possible at being forced to abandon her lunch when her husband sent her a message expressing how urgent it was she got to the operators' floor immediately - like terrorist attack urgent. Although it turned out he wasn't being stabbed to death or anything as dramatic as her worst nightmares had had her considering, she knew in this state with a migraine this endless and extreme, just the toaster lever not clicking into place on the first try was enough to reduce the ever-serious Kellyn to tears. A few years ago he'd come down with some sort of flu, and the resulting headache had sparked a series of events that had him absolutely bawling at the fact the fridge magnet wouldn't stay on the fridge. As much as it may damage Kellyn's pride when these episodes came up, Kate couldn't help but like them a bit, in that she was pretty much the only one who got to see them. He knew he could sob hysterically for almost no reason at all, and she would still provide a shoulder to cry and never bring it up again. They could depend on each other like that, and it warmed Kate's heart a little to know under all the layers of gruffness and pent-up frustration, there was still that bouncy little mute Kate met when she was twelve who cried when the oven burnt him and tripped over Lego blocks.

"Where's Keith?" Kellyn pretty much grunted to Kanna as Kate leant across his shoulder to open the Skype application. "You'd think he'd want to talk to his daughter."

"Latios I know" Kanna shrugged, picking up her Vaporeon and giving him a good belly-rub (Luna glared at him enviously - Kanna always gave the best belly-rubs) "Probably still in Pueltown, raging and swearing at the council to try and get that damn bike back." She sighed as though miffed at something. "I swear, I feel like the other woman to that bike sometimes."

"It was in his life before you, technically" Kellyn pointed out "I don't think even Summer could replace his love for _that_ abomination."

Before Kellyn could dictate an essay about how much he hated Keith's darn motorbike, Kate changed the subject. "So, Kanna, how's the abuse case coming along?"

"Well, our suspect's not very compliant" Kanna explained "Somewhere between the 'Top Ranger' and the 'Dazuru' he told me to leave him alone in some very unpleasant terms that included name-calling."

"Oh Arceus, don't tell Keith that!" Kate joked with a bemused smile "We want the guy to survive until the trial."

"It's masculine pride - men feel they have to save their damsels from the 'evil' in this world" Kanna sighed dramatically.

"Are you kidding me? Kellyn's the friggin poster boy" Kate laughed, patting her husband's shoulder affectionately "Even before we got our shit together, during Operation Brighton the two of us were on top of Altru Tower, and he felt the compulsive need to—"

"You girls do remember I'm here, right?" Kellyn cut in, showing his 'Not Impressed' face he usually saved for Keith "Whilst you're having this conversation?"

"Of course, Honey" Kate grinned, ruffling his hair affectionally like she used to do when he was a kid "We wouldn't be having it if you _weren't_."

Kellyn attempted to glare at her, but his gaze inevitably softened after a few seconds. Kanna swore she could see the little hearts in his eyes still after all these years. Honestly - she'd know them since they were sixteen and seventeen, and they hadn't changed a bit in that sense. She just held back a sigh - instead she was stuck wondering what she'd done in her previous life to get stuck with the Hajimes for co-workers.

Well, at least this life brought her Keith and her wonderful daughter.

Kate was the first to look away. "So, this guy's still being uncooperative, Kans?"

"He was when I left him after five hours of raging, swearing and banging the table" Kanna clarified "I sicked Sven on him before lunch - see how long his bravado goes on for."

Kate's giggling response was cut off by Kellyn slamming his head into the desk, just missing the keyboard.

"That hangover's still plaguing you?" Kate raised an eyebrow "Now? Two days later? I thought you said it was okay this morning?"

"It _was_ okay this morning!" Kellyn's voice grumbled from where his head still rested "But now it isn't!" He groaned "How are you all still standing?!"

"Because _we_ didn't get talked into drinking our own body weight in booze and Keith and Sven both have a very high tolerance" Kanna explained in a demeaning tone, even if most of it was just for show "Maybe you should've thought of that _before_ you got smashed and passed out."

"I hate the world" Kellyn groaned, Kate cooing sympathetically and running her hands through his hair in soothing motions "At least I made it to work. More than the bloody Pembertons did."

"That would be because Freddie's in the hospital with six broken bones from trying to 'fly' off of the second floor balcony whilst intoxicated" Kanna told him "And Julian is also in the hospital for crashing off the stage into the loudspeaker. Whine all you want - they were the worst victims of this catastrophe of a party."

"And Nage? What's his excuse?" Kellyn grumbled on, still intent on playing the victim card.

"Nage doesn't need an excuse not to show up - he holds his work hours for random from Professor Hastings every other week" Kanna added.

Kellyn groaned with what could've been either the migrate or the defeat. Kate picked up his half-full flask of heated lemon water and handed it to him, prompting him to throw his head back and chug down a good quarter of it.

It was at this time Keith decided it was appropriate to stroll onto the floor without a care in the world, baring a cup of expresso and the keys to his newly released motorbike - if the annoying man on the other end of the phone was to be believed.

"Whazzup bitches?!" He bellowed, spreading his arms wide with a grin the size of a small country.

Several of the interns manning the remaining computers turned their heads away in disgust, whilst a few grinned at the arrive of the ginger menace and one girl even seemed to have hearts dancing in her glassy green eyes. Whilst Kate rolled her eyes, Kanna just giggled at the normalcy - it was just Keith's way of summing up "The kids are away and everything is right in the world!" in a sentence that wouldn't automatically overload his brain. Kellyn however slammed his head on the desk before feebly sniffing his flask as if he hoped the scent of the lemon water would cure his headache - coffee for some reason only seemed to make the migraine worse and between Keith's yelling and his beverage, Kellyn now feel 10,000 times more ill and just generally ready to storm back to Chicole Village, crawl into bed and never greet the world again.

"Where've you been all morning?!" Kate demanded, since Kanna was being far too soft on him with her going up and kissing him on the temple "Professor Hastings nearly blew his top with you not showing up to work today!"

"Chillax Kate, it's no biggey" Keith was honestly starting to sounds like a stoned, alcoholic, homeless man rather than a 38-year-old Top Ranger. "I was just sorting out me bike, that's all."

"Got that bloody thing clamped again?" Kellyn groaned with exasperation and a bit of pain, but mostly exasperation and generally being in the vicinity of Keith "Don't make me fork into my savings to lend you more money. You already owe me from the last three times you got it clamped, towed or otherwise removed from your custody."

"I payed for it myself, thank you!" Keith responded indignantly.

"How?" Kellyn shot back, though he may've been the tiniest bit curious "Raided your daughter's piggy bank again?"

"No!" Keith scoffed "I have this marvellous thing called a wallet, you know!" He then looked like he was pondering something. "Though I still don't know how it ended up in the fish tank."

"And you managed to find it by yourself" Kellyn looked like he was about to sarcastically applaud, though thankfully he didn't. No need to turn a few frayed tempers into an all out brawl. "I now believe you when you say you have _two_ brain cells rather than the single one I thought you had."

Keith groaned with an eye roll so dramatic it really ought to be on Broadway, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Oh dear, whatever would I do without you?"

"If I had a day I wouldn't be able to name the whole list of things that would happen to you without me."

"Boys, stop it!" Kate cut in hastily. As much as she appreciated Kellyn and Keith could keep up a healthy relationship of bickering all these years later, but she'd much refer it if they could stop so she could think straight. Together their voices were grating on the ears.

"Fine, is the transmission ready yet?" Kellyn complained, plainly bored of being beaten.

"Kellyn!" Kate groaned, pretty exasperated after the day's events so far "I told you before, it's called Skype! Transmissions went out with the cold war!"

"We Skyping someone?" Keith blinked, crowding up behind Kellyn's seat with the girls to take a peak at the monitor.

"Your daughter" Kanna clarified with an affectionate if not slightly long-suffering tone in her voice "To make sure she wasn't eaten by Sharpedos or stranded in the Orange Islands on her way there."

Kate's shudder and Kellyn's hitch of breath went undetected.

"That's Leanne's computer, isn't it?" Kate pointed out, gesturing at a Skype address appropriately reading: **Talga Family**.

"What time is it over there?" Kellyn double checked.

"Er...it's one o'clock here, so..." Keith checked his watch and then scrunched his face up, as if concentrating really hard on something.

"They're three hours behind us" Kate supplied before they all died of old age waiting for Keith to figure it out "So it should be about ten o'clock over there."

"Even Summer should be awake then" Keith joked, Kanna laughing in agreement.

Kellyn spun the mouse in a circle twice to make sure it was working before moving the curser over the name and clicking it.

A black screen came up for a few seconds, before it closed itself again.

In other words, nothing happened.

Click.

Nothing again.

Click.

"This thing is uncooperative."

"Oh give it here!" Kate scowled, snatching the mouse off of him. "Honestly! Men and machines!"

Nought. Zilch. Nada.

"Something's wrong here" Kellyn declared, evidently deciding the mouse hadn't be abused enough as he proceeded to slam it three times before it failed at opening an communications line again.

Keith frowned, whipping on his reading glasses and leaning close to the screen. He quickly held up his hand and said: "Not a word, Kellyn!"

He seemed to realise his long-time friend was chuckling at his reading attire again.

"Is Leanne's laptop off, maybe?" he suggested.

"Leanne _doesn't_ turn her laptop off, ever" Kanna pointed out "Remember - she told us it was so she didn't have to wait for it to load when she needed to receive vital research to write reports on."

"Well, unless Skype's bust, there's only one thing that could be going wrong" Keith supplied, ever the computer whiz-genius, to the surprise of many "The router's bust."

"It can't be. All the other computers are working fine" Kellyn argued, gesturing at the computers the interns (who were giving the four of them increasingly shiftier glances by the second) were using. No problems whatsoever - with the machines anyway.

Keith seemed to think long and hard before responding to that: "Well maybe it's not us. Maybe it's the router over in Oblivia."

"But that's the Wireless Tower" Kate pointed out "Are you saying something's wrong with it again?"

"Faulty repair?" Kellyn suggested. He wouldn't put it past that stupid mechanic - whatever his name was - in Oblivia to royalty screw the job up. He knew they should've sent one of their own.

"I don't think so. Something's not right" was Keith's reply, but it was long, drawn-out one - like there was an idea in his head but he didn't want to say it because if he jinxed it and it came true it would turn into the worst thing to ever happen to him.

"Did Little Murph report any problems when he got back this morning?" Kanna asked.

"He was all tuckered out from the journey back" Kate told her "He went to bed almost as soon as he got here."

"Doesn't sound like he thought there was problem" Kellyn commented "He would've reported it straight away - possibly over the radio before he got back here."

"There hasn't been a problem in Oblivia in nearly three years" Kate added.

"I know, I know, it was just a thought" Keith held up his hands in defeat "I just...just have a feeling, that's all."

There was a long pause here, where everyone mulled over the idea in their heads. It was probably just a problem with the repairs, or maybe Leanne had just turned her computer off. It was just so unlikely that anything had actually happened. But it was only unlikely, not impossible.

"It's probably just a repair fault..." Kellyn declared, but slowly, uncertainly, as if he himself wasn't completely convinced.

"They...the kids and Rand can handle it, surely" Kate spoke up, squeaking slight in her concern "Right?"

"Yeah" Keith agreed, clearly not at ease "Right. They're professionals. They can handle it. We shouldn't worry."

Kanna placed a comforting hand on his arm. "We're parents. It's our job to worry."

Keith said nothing back. Kellyn and Kate couldn't meet her eyes.


	7. Cloudy with a chance of probing

**"Will you please talk to yourself more quietly?"**

**"Cause...Cause I said so!"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Seven - Cloudy with a chance of probing**

Their arrival in Tilt Village was something between triumphant and just plain embarrassing.

The whole debacle of a three mile hike really had it's roots an hour earlier, when Nick woke up and saw one lone dark cloud sitting like a slither of butter on a slice of bread on the ever-blue horizon. This was apparently a bad omen, they were going to get struck by lightning at some point during the day and summoning Raikou to make the trip would just be prompting the inevitable. So he declared if he was to come on this quest with them (Ben protested it wasn't a quest but reconnaissance and privately muttered he wasn't exactly thrilled to be bringing Nick along so why not just sod it and leave him here?) they were going to walk there.

Somewhere between plank 167 and plank 172 (Both rangers were certain Nick had counted 133 at least twice) of the Booker Bridge, Summer snapped.

Their dramatic entrance to Tilt Village was therefore a bit overshadowed by Nick's wailing as he lost grip of Raikou's side and hit the dirt, as well as Ben's Staraptor squawking at him (using a few choice words that probably came from _her_ dad if anyone, Summer recognised) from pulling out one of her tail feathers.

Pichu kinda looked like he wanted to crawl into a little hole and never come out again. Summer would've shared the sentiments had she not spent nearly three years dealing with Nick's little stunts.

She prayed to Arceus that was the end of the shenanigans.

But Arceus never was her best friend, now was he? In fact he seemed to have it out for her.

"RANGERS!"

This cry was enough to startle Raikou into a disappearing act minus his passengers (Ben was mildly disappointed - he wouldn't have minded their hapless third wheel disappearing as well). It was backed up by the pattering of little feet on the gravel coming towards them.

"If it's that little brat looking for his bouncy-ball again," Ben grumbled, adjusting his goggles on his head "I will shoot him. I have no qualms. That's what siblings are for, not rangers."

Nick gasped and pulled him aside, attempting and quite spectacularly failing to whisper urgently to him: "Ben, since you're my best friend ("Since when did that happen? I thought you were _Nema's_ pet" Ben's mumbling retort was ignored - he appeared to be having a particularly bad day from the moment he found he just physically couldn't bring himself to get out of bed that morning), so I will give you some advice you must always carry with you to avoid immediate extermination. It's bad to wish harm upon kids! Their mothers are terrifying! Like Prinplups! Oh no! Could it be?! That little boy's older sister heard you and is going to tell their mother and their mother's going to charge out here and machete you to death and cos I'm standing next to you I'm gonna get machete'd too and WHY AM I STANDING NEXT TO YOU?!"

"Nick!" Summer stopped him from yelling any further, just in time to be barrelled into be a small child.

The child who'd barrelled into Summer appeared to be a member of whatever club declared orange was the only acceptable colour on the spectrum with Nick, as everything from his eyes to his trainers was orange. The only thing about him that wasn't orange was his faintly tanned skin and a mop of silver hair on his head. The boy running to catch up with him was slightly older, about 8 or so, wearing various combinations of blue, green and yellow with bowl-cut turquoise hair to go with it.

"She been anjuncted!" came a muffled voice, his head buried in Summer's shirt.

Summer tried to force the little boy away so she could see him better. "What? Who's been what?"

"Abducted! She's been abducted!" The other boy supplied, skidding to a halt before them.

"Abducted?" Ben startled.

"BY ALIENS!" the younger boy, who couldn't have been older than five, wailed.

Well, I think you can see where this was going.

"ALIENS?!" Nick actually wailed louder than the bawling five-year-old "Oh no! Could it be?! The destruction of the Wireless Tower caused aliens to loose contact with the world leaders and so have started abducting people to torture for information and this poor girl's currently trapped inside their mothership being PROBED and we're all gonna be next if we don't—!"

Summer slapped a hand over Nick's mouth before he could upset the child further. "Don't mind him, he tends to talk in paragraphs." She told the rather confussled (Nema's new favourite word of the week - it was slowly growing on Summer) eight-year-old and distressed five-year-old.

"But they were aliens!" the younger boy sobbed "In alien pods!"

Summer froze. Alien pods? Pods like the ones she saw yesterday at the Wireless Tower?

"Okay, let's start this again" Ben meanwhile cut in "First all of, who are you two and who's been abducted."

"I'm Icarus, and that's Hope" the older boy informed them "And it was Hope's sister. Her name's Lakia. She's got silver hair and she's yay tall." He demonstrated how tall she was by holding his hand about level with his own head.

"Thank you" Ben looked a bit relieved to finally be getting something he could work with "Now, does Lakia run away a lot? Has she told you about plans to run away from home?"

"She didn't run away!" Hope wailed, pulling at Summer's jacket as if to hold her attention. "Aliens anjuncted her!"

"No she wasn't" Ben scoffed and Summer winced in sympathy for the child - on days like this empathy was not Ben's strong suit. "There's no such thing as aliens." Nick sucked in a scandaled breath, sounding like he was about to yell 'blasphemy'. "And before you start insisting there are, _if_ there are aliens out there, they have better things to be doing than kidnap your friend. So, if you please, can you give us any information on where you believe your friend might go if she ran away or otherwise give up the ghost."

Summer was pretty sure that what he meant to say was "quit with the prank", but on an off day she often muddled phrases too. It was probably all the same to a child anyway.

"But she wasn't kidnapped by ghosts!" Alright, maybe not "It was aliens! In pods!"

"What did these pods look like?" Summer cut in before Ben could interject.

Ben's ticked off look turned on Summer now. "Oh come on! Don't tell me you're believing this."

Summer made a motion towards him clearly telling him to zip it and let Icarus talk.

"We were playing by the Daybreak Ruins" Icarus explained, barely stopping for breath as he spoke at a speed only rivalled by Nick "Our ball got stuck on top of some rocks and Lakia went up to get it, but next thing we know these two big black egg thingies come whizzing down from the sky like zoom, zoom, zoom! And then one of them opened and something just leaned out a grabbed her like snap!" On 'snap!' he clutched his arms to his chest as if snatching something. The action made Hope shudder and dampen Summer's shirt with more sticky tears. "And then whoosh! They both disappeared into nowhere!"

Summer swallowed as her throat felt dry as the Almia desert by now. It was so clearly the TinMen they may as well call up now and confess to the crime. But worse - it was obvious they *were* kidnapping people. Had she suspicions been correct when she suggested Colette's little friend had been kidnapped?

She made a mental note to make a survey of who was missing from the islands. If they were kidnapping people left and right, these guys were worse than anything they'd faced - even the Societea.

She looked over at Ben, who was still clearly not convinced by these claims, but the second they made eye contact his snooty 'I know better than you' look faded into '_Are you sur_e?'

'_Positive_' was her wordless reply '_These are our guys_.'

He didn't need her to say it out loud to understand her. She thanked Arceus that, despite what they'd gone through, they hadn't lost that special connection that let them know what the other was thinking.

"You said she was kidnapped by the Daybreak Ruins?" Summer double-checked.

"Anjuncted" Hope tearful corrected her.

"By aliens!" Nick felt the insufferable need to add on. Ben elbowed him in the back discreetly so the children couldn't see.

"Well we'll go and find them and bring her home" Summer announced "I promise you - we'll get her back."

Hope cheered and did a funny little victory dance, which looked like a cross between the can-can and the Macarena. Icarus just gave him a strange look.

"Don't make promises you can't keep" was Ben not so subtle mutter.

Summer sighed and wished she had one of those berries that made her Dad really hyper and stay up all night - those were probably the only things that would snap him out of _this_ funk. You'd think after more then two years of this she's be used to it by now.

"One last thing, any chance she can get herself out of this?" Summer tried, a last ditch effort of avoiding this quest. If it wasn't a solid lead on tracking the TinMen down and Lakia was capable of rescuing herself, then they'd be wasting time and Ben would be sure to remind her of that for the next forty years.

Icarus shrugged. "Maybe. If she developed this little thing called intelligence. Which she won't."

Summer sighed. "Right. Time to initiate Plan B."

"Plan B?" Ben frowned "When was Plan A?"

"Plan As never work, so I'm just skipping to B" Summer explained briefly, waving an arm at him in a dismissive motion "We go to the Daybreak Ruins and look for clues. If she's not there, we start searching the skies."

"**_You better not make me carry Sea-Weed Head_**!" was Staraptor's very useful comment on the plan.

"Alright" was Ben's only reply, but it betrayed every bare inch of snark her could possibly out into one word.

"But it's _aliens_! We're gonna be _probed_!" was Nick's comment.

All three of them were duly ignored.

"Pica!" Pichu cheered and strummed at his ukulele.

Now that was the reaction Summer was looking for!

* * *

"I'm gonna make you pay! Once I get out of here you're going to regret the day you ever came face to face with Lakia Ryneski!"

Taska rolled her eyes, trying to gather the rest of her pink hair so she could crest another pigtail.

"I know!" she grumbled around the scrunchy in her mouth "I heard you the past thirteen times!"

Ugh, why did they have to bring this sniffling brat along anyway? It was only distracting them from their true mission. But no, His Majesty was a toy to play with, and whilst Taska was more than happy herself to zoom off to the nearest toy store and get him a whole trunkful of Pokedolls, orders from up the food chain commanded her to get the real deal.

But couldn't they have at least grabbed the smaller one. The most he would've done was cry, rather than force her to listen to the same two sentences reverberating through the halls of HyakuJûRoku.

She frowned for the zillionth time that day, her train of thought switching onto a familiar track. She really needed to convince someone that calling HyakuJûRoku the Japanese name of it's frequency code: 166 (rumoured to be the result of their combined ages, though Taska wasn't the only one who protested this scenario) as really just a bit of a cop-out and nightmare to type into the computer multiple times. It wasn't the first time she'd raised her placard about it, but last time her protests were shot down the moment the replacement name 'The Death Star' was brought up.

Sigh, sooner they conquered the world the better was all she could say.

"And then I'm gonna bust outta this cage and then I'm gonna whack you in the nuts and then I'm gonna grab the controls and then I'm gonna crash this floating—"

"Will you please talk to yourself more quietly, I'm trying to figure out what to do with you" Taska complained, shooting Lakia a glare. In return, Lakia stuck her tongue out at her. The pink-haired woman snorted and proceeded to blatantly ignore the girl now.

Why were they keeping her in the bridge in again? And in the Houndoor cage at that? Why not just throw her in with the little master and have done with it already?

Right, cos they have to scan a sector of ocean and it was more practical to deal with it when they had to hover still anyway, rather than take valuable time away from steering this bleedin' thing.

To hell with practically, she was tempted to say.

...

How long has this soliloquy been going on for now?

"HyakuJûRoku, this is Beta calling from Mainland, over."

Well, it ends now.

With the fury of a women far worse than having a seven-year-old girl for the past twenty minutes, Taska slammed down the button to open the microphone. "Beta, this is HyakuJûRoku, over."

"HyakuJûRoku, how are you coping over there, over."

Alright, that did it.

"No for the record I am not coping!" Taska bellowed back down the line loud enough to cause the speakers on the other end of the line to crackle "I have been up for _three days_ trying to hold this bloody ship together, taking down towers with plasma guns that have probably been recycled from the _Stone Age_, having my aim insulted by a _youth_, dealt with You-Know-Who-Who-Is-Not-Voldemort for more time than the average psychiatrist recommends, bent to the beck 'n' call of a certain psychic being cos _someone_ thinks a _woman_ should have the job, I've been having the most horrendous stomach cramps ever since we left land and now you're making me babysit a snot-nosed mouthy brat! So no, I am most certainly _not_ coping, _**over**_!"

There was a well-deserved silence on the other end of the line, as if they were generous enough to let Taska get her breath back. Even the little brat in the corner was silent for once. But before she could say she had truly recovered, an amused chuckle drifted from down the line.

"Well HyakuJûRoku, that was quite the show. But I hope I don't have to inform Our Leader of your show of disrespect towards a senior partner, over."

Taska blanched and quickly called back, gritting her teeth just a little bit "No sir. I apologise sir, over."

"That's a bit better."

Yes, teeth definitely gritted how the threat had passed.

"HyakuJûRoku, this is a reminder of your mission objective to scan Sectors 492, 495 and 489, both land and water, over."

"That is affirmed Beta, over" Taska responded, rolling her eyes just a bit. Yes she knew her mission - it was written up there on the screen for Arceus' sake. This was clearly just another opportunity to get a rise out of her, and to make it look like she wasn't the only one doing any work.

"That is, if you're able to cope with such a mission. We wouldn't want to overburden you, over."

'_Grin and bare it, grin and bare it_' she told herself "No sir. We are quite capable of carrying out this task, over."

"Glad to hear it HyakuJûRoku. This is Beta, over and out."

Taska released the microphone button and banged her head into the side of one of the monitors. Thankfully it stayed in place rather than shifting and contributing to her embarrassment.

"...When my stomach feels unwell my mummy gives me calpol."

Taska took a deep breath before she decided she was capable of responding in something that wasn't a ribbon of endless expletives.

"This requires something a little more heavy-duty than calpol" Taska informed the girl. Glancing over at her, she was now just confused. An improvement over screaming. "Give it a few years, you'll come to understand. It's hell from here on in."

"Wheh-heh-heh! Look who got chewed out by Master Superior!"

Okay, she could grin and bare her so called 'superior'. She could deal with Rohoneigh's creepy attitude and scathing remarks. She could deal with the little brat and her wails of revenge. But her pestilence tethered out at this one.

Lakia actually screamed as someone jumped down from an open hole in the ceiling where the tile had fallen out. Said person flipped down and landed in a crouch with both hands on the floor for stability.

And if she hadn't screamed at his manner of entrance, she certainly did at his face.

Words. Words etched deep, diagonally across his otherwise pale twenty-something-year-old face. Words that scittered across his blue left eye in a grotesque scribble and up into his blond hairline and below the collar line of his cloak. But they weren't words in any scripture anyone of that dimension knew, nor were they ink. These were far more than a tattoo. They radiated a power that held the gaze of anyone who looked upon them, put there by something far more powerful than a tattoo-artists' pen.

"If you do that again, Freak, I will bury you in concrete and chuck you off the side of this ship" Taska declared her warning, a warning not unlike ones she'd laid down before in the far too long time they'd been working together.

If there was a flicker of fear on the new arrival's repulsive face at any point, it was gone before either of the girls could register it. "Now Tassie, you know you love me too much to do that!"

"Misha, what are you doing here, you'd supposed to be guarding the perimeter!" she scolded.

She got an eye-roll in return. "Yeah, but that's what the foot soldiers are for."

"The foot soldiers that we sprung from their police cells for walking on the Bicycle Path!" Taska reminded him "They're not qualified to guard the keys to their own cells let alone the perimeter!"

The scarred man - Misha - pouted as he stood up, his back bent over forwards in a clear hunchback position. "You're all work and no fun, Tassie. What happened to the little girl with pink hair who wanted to be a model?"

"She grew up" Taska informed him, turning away to face the controls again to try and hide how much of an impact that question had made "Something you clearly haven't done despite the fact you've had a good deal longer to do it."

"Help! Help me please!" Lakia pleaded, throwing herself against the bars of the Houndoom cage, orange eyes wide and directed towards Misha.

"Who, me?" Misha pointed at himself, and Lakia tried to ignore the fact the scary writing was on his hand too.

"Yeah, you!" Lakia insisted, seeming to have forgot she was make this appeal for help directly in front of the one who'd kidnapped her in the first place "You gotta get me outta here!"

"Why?" Misha challenged her, making it sound like an actual question.

Lakia face screwed up, as if she hadn't been expecting to answer that. "Cause...Cause I said so!"

"Let me guess, your mummy taught you that" Misha chuckled, taking in Lakia's deflated expression.

"Yeah" she admitted.

Had Lakia been a little older and more worldly-wise, she may've recognised the nostalgic look in Misha's eyes. "I used to have a daughter like you. Her mother's girl in every way. 'Cause I said so' was her favourite phrase."

"Well, if you're done with your trip down memory lane" Taska interrupted him, changing the ship's heading ever so slightly "There's a perimeter out there and it needs surveying. What with those rangers snooping around, you can't be too careful."

"Wow, for years this organisation has struck hope and fear into the hearts of the masses and we are now hiding from two teenagers" Misha snarked "I'm thinking we should bail out, start our own secret organisation bent on mass destruction: Pinky and The Man With The Not-So-Dragon Tattoo."

That got a laugh out of Lakia. It grated on Taska's ears.

"Perimeter! NOW!" she ordered "Or you're going in the concrete!"

Misha stuck her tongue out at her back before whispering - or Misha-whispering anyway, which was more like stage whispering - to Lakia. "If she gets grumpy, call her Pinky and ask who the brain is. Makes your day feel so much better."

"MISHA! PERIMETER!"

"Right! Fine! I'm goin'! I'm goin'!"

* * *

"This is pointless, this stupid" Ben muttered, kicking his feet as he followed a long way behind Nick and Summer on their way to the Daybreak Ruins.

"We should be protecting Oblivia for those who seek to do it harm" he grumbled, kicking a stone over the cliff into the ocean below "Not gallivanting after some dumb kid who got herself lost."

There was a little part of his brain telling him off at the moment, scolding him that he shouldn't be thinking these thoughts and he was being mean, cruel and unreasonable. Even Staraptor had flown ahead, refusing to out up with his foul mood. But all he could feel was what felt like Groundon itself pressing down on his shoulders, trying to sink him in, and all he wanted to do was burry himself in bed for a few hours or a few days and wait for it to shift as quickly as it had come about him. But he couldn't do that - Oblivia was at stake (when was it not?) - and if the only way of him dealing with that titanic weight was grumbling and moaning about every little detail, then so be it. He was much more useful out in the field than wallowing in bed.

"Stupid bloody bad guys, blowing up bleedin' towers" he grumbled on "Should've just stayed at home."

Up ahead, Summer was dragging Nick along (the reason she was dragging _him_ along) explaining for the millionth time the people in the so-called pods were not aliens and no they were not going to probe him, experiment on him or force him to do anything vaguely sexual and since had this become Close Encounters 2?

"Definitely should've stayed at home."

"Where light'ing, fire and ice surroundin', where de rainbow bird awakes acirclin', were eons fly 'cross de shimmerin' sky, not once bet twice darkness will come."

"Eh?" Ben glanced back over his shoulder. "Someone there?"

Someone was there, though Ben swore he hadn't been there when he passed those rocks the first time. But he was sure there now. A boy, less than ten, raven-black hair.

Had he seen this kid before? Surely not. Surely he wouldn't remembered someone prading around in aboriginal clothing and with a look like _that_ in their eye. Look that made you want to bow down to them - though Ben was most certainly not doing that.

"What?" Was all he could say. Had anyone else been in his position I doubt they would've said much else.

"Second time darkness come aplund'rin'" the boy went on, as if reciting something in a heavily accented voice "And the de'd will rise awalkin', de psychic heroes come arumblin', to stop de sky from here atumblin'."

With an air of finality, the boy faded away, as if he was no more than a harmless projection.

Ben blinked.

He blinked again.

There was boy.

Standing right there.

And now he wasn't.

Great Arceus - two years on this blasted archipelago with these morons had finally driven him round the bend.

...

It was surprising to him it had taken so long.

"FOR THE LAST TIME NICK, WE ARE NOT GONNA BE PROBED!"

Well that snapped him back to reality.

"Someone's gonna end up dead" he sighed, trudging after the hastily disappearing figures, trying to forget about the weird boy and his weird clothes and his weird poem and just focus on how dark the world looked. "By the end of this whole saga, there will be a body, and I'm not burrying it."

After all, the world looked very dark from where he was standing.

* * *

From his vantage-point Owari clicked his tongue, wondering why the message had been delivered to Natsuya of all people and not Summer. But who was he to challenge the way the Messenger of Prophecies chose to work? Maybe it all tied into the grand scheme of things. Maybe only Arceus knew.

He just wished Ben's last statement hadn't been so frightening true.


	8. In which we storm an airship

**"Mind-controlling gloves?"**

**"Your Uncle Kate is weirder than that"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Eight - In which we storm an airship**

Nothing is more frustrating to a ranger than a combination-locked door.

You can't target clear it, the nearest psychic being can't melt the lock and trying to crack the combination took hours that they didn't have.

Especially when they was stood on the outside of an airship.

Whilst it was moving.

Oh joys.

"Just ram it or something!" Ben yelled over the sound of the wind rushing past them.

"Wha?!" Summer yelled back at him, not quite able to here him.

Ben grabbed her by the ear and yanked her head until he was practically kissing the side of her face with their closeness. "JUST RAM IT OR SOMETHING!"

"WITH WHAT?!" Summer screamed back in response "WHAT MISCELLANEOUS TREE OR BOULDER UP HERE DO YOU PLAN ON RAMMING IT WITH?!"

Staraptor squawked something about capturing Pokémon for jobs like this prior to starting quests because why do they always assume the necessary Pokémon will be there when they need them because Pokémon aren't freakin' psychic you know and they can't be expected to be there when ranger needed them. She was grabbing a convenient railing with her claws in order to remain on the airship. Pichu was wailing as he held on to Staraptor's tail feathers as if his life depended on it - which it probably did.

Latias had buggered off. Smart Pokémon.

"FINE!" Summer declared, her face screwing up in rage "THIS THING IS GOING DOWN!"

She raised her hands above her head and felt the electricity tingling in them. Bringing them down, she sent a bolt of electricity roaring towards the combination lock to the side of the door.

The bolt promptly turned tail before it even reached the combination lock and narrowly missed Ben's head.

"MY HAIR!" Ben yelped, trying to straighten the mound into place but every time he flattened a string of hair it would bounce back up into the static state the passing bolt of electricity had put it in.

"Looks no different" Summer muttered, and was pleased the airship was moving at such a speed Ben couldn't hear her due to the wind.

As if the airship was cued by her thoughts, it slowed down. The wind began to quieten so they could hear each other talk and themselves think and Pichu no longer had to hang on for dear life.

Ben was muttering about stupid electricity whilst Nick was pulling his orange bandana down onto his head as if to protect his hair from more bolts of electricity. All the while he was wailing about how they should've just stayed at the Daybreak Ruins when they didn't find anything instead of taking off into the air and finding this airship and now they were going to be abducted and probed by aliens and why the hell didn't they all just stay at home and why had humans ever come out of the trees in the first place and heck the trees were probably a bad move so maybe they all should've just stayed in the ocean instead and could it be blah blah blah.

"Ben, keep an eyes on that other door" Summer pointed out an identical door on the other side of the top of the airship. "The last thing we need is to be surrounded."

Ben muttered something unintelligible but probably not anything pleasant and turned to face the other door, one hand readying his styler and the other still trying in faint to fix his hair."

"Well, this must be resistant to electricity to prevent anyone breaking it" Summer declared, frowning at the combination lock. She swore the damn thing actually smirked at her.

"So, we're going to break the code?" Nick asked in an almost whimpering tone. At least he wasn't wailing about the philosophy of humans anymore.

"Well we need to work out x first" Summer stated, tapping the combination lock but not touching the buttons yet. She knew prodding buttons without knowing what they did often lead to disastrous.

"x?" Nick frowned.

"What's x?" Ben asked, unable to see what Summer was doing from his look-out post.

"Exactly" Summer responded with, failing to understand the meaning of Ben's question.

"Eh?!" Had Ben been writing this, I have no doubt he would've added all those question marks and exclamation points.

"If we have an 'x', shouldn't we have a 'y' too?" Nick suggested.

"Why?" Summer frowned.

"Yeah."

"No, I mean, why?"

"Yeah. 'y'."

"Stop it!" Ben complained "Just try 1234."

Summer's face scrunched up again, but this time in confusion. "Why?"

"That what I said!"

Ignoring Nick's chip-in, Summer questioned. "Do you really thing they're that stupid?"

"Sure" Ben shrugged "I've learnt never to underestimate the stupidity of people who still join secret organisations wanting to take over the world nearly thirty years after Team Rocket was disbanded."

When the door opened with 1234, Summer didn't roll her eyes or complain. Instead, she simply swung her arm around Ben's shoulders and led him inside. If it hadn't been so dark, shoe may've been disappointed she didn't get a smile in return from him.

Nick began murmuring about whether it was the Blondies or the Grays and maybe he could offer them Unova in exchange for their freedom.

* * *

Taska pulled back the control stick and listened as the engines powered down a bit to slow the airship down. Once the dials said they were at the appropriate speed, she flipped on the underside scanners. With a sigh of frustrated preparation, she hit the button to open the communications line.

"Beta, this is HyakuJûRoku. We have reached Sector 492 and are commencing scanning, over."

It took a couple of seconds to get a response.

"HyakuJûRoku, this is Beta. Call in if you get a hit, over."

"Yes sir, over."

Releasing the button to close the line, Taska checked the screen set up for scanning. It had fizzed into life in a blur of green with and needle slowly spinning round, scanning the ocean below.

"Shouldn't find anything for a few minutes, if at all" she muttered to herself.

"Mmmmm-uh! Ummmmm!"

With a roll of her eyes, Taska looked over at the brat. She'd gagged her with one of Rohoneigh's bandanas and tied her hands, and it had been the best decision she'd made all day.

This was about to go in at second.

"Alright kid, let's go" she announced, unlocking the Houndour cage and dragging the kid out by her ponytail. Revenge for annoying the hell out of her for hours on end, if nothing else.

"Where are you taking me, you ugly poop!" Drag, the movement had shifted the gag enough for the brat to start talking.

"To you-know-where" was the cryptic answer.

"VOLDEMORT?!" Latias, did she have to be so loud?

"No, that's you-know-who" Taska corrected her, dragging her towards the door, but by her arm rather than her ponytail this time. "If you get out of this alive, you need to catch up on your literature, kid."

That is, if the boss doesn't remove books from the face of the earth. There could be mass book-burnings across the world like in The Book Thief. Taska had a soft spot for that movie - not that she'd ever admit it.

"_If_ I get out alive?!" Oh, right, the brat was still wailing "WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?!"

Most of Oblivia probably heard that.

"Oh shut up!" Taska snapped, shaking her arm fiercely as she turned the wheel to open the door from the bridge. "As least _he_ keep his gob shut."

'_Even if our lives have become one big game of charades since we were told to watch him. "Be a motherly figure" my ass._'

* * *

"Gloves?"

"Techi-gloves."

"That's how they're controlling their Pokémon?"

"Well, I guessed at it when I took them on at the Wireless Tower, but clearly that has to be how they're doing it cos nobody waves their hands that much unless they're deaf or playing angry birds."

"Mind-controlling gloves?"

"Yup."

"That's..."

"Weird?"

"Original."

...

...

...

"Are we gonna die now?"

Summer waved her arm out at Nick to get him to stop squeaking. Ben was staring at the TinMen who were coming at them from left and right with two Furrets each. In his opinion, if they wanted to look intimidating they should've swapped the mind-controlling gloves for mind-controlling swords and come with a couple of Tyranitars instead of Furrets.

"Rangers!" the one on the left wailed.

"Oh no, we can't possibly be" Ben snarked, rolling his eyes "The rangers are over that way, we're just the entourage."

"Furret, attack the rangers!"

"ATTACK!"

The two of them promptly found themselves surrounded by four balls of angry, mind-controlled fur. (Nick by this point was cowering against a particularly large freight container and wishing he had a pair of magical red shoes to click his heels back home to Kansas).

"_**Next time Ben, just keep your darn mouth shut**_" Staraptor voiced everyone's thoughts.

Automatically capture discs flew through the air, circling the Furrets with looping blue lines, dancing a graceful ballet amongst the—

**CRACK!**

"Ben, you dolt!" Summer screeched, green eyes ablaze as the lights in the airship flicked like they were in sort of horror movie.

"Summer, you moron!" Ben yelled right back (but sadly not accompanied by anything as dramatic as flicking lights and an angry Pichu waving a ukulele at him), waving his arm in the direction of their capture discs, now on the floor of the airship. "You hit my disc! You could've broken it you stupid girl!"

"Me?! You're the one who has to do dramatic arm movements to try and look cool and send the bloody disc flying everywhere!" Summer shot back "Stay on your side of fight!"

"We're fighting for our lives - there aren't any 'sides' of the fight!" Ben argued.

"Well now there is!" Summer shot back, pointing her hand down at the floor and automatically a flurry of holly leaves materialised and settled into a perfect line. "This line, you not cross! This my side, you stay on your side! Two Furrets each! Is this complex?!"

The capture discs were duelling it out like Beyblades by this stage, hitting the you-know-what out of each other as if making up for the lack of physical action by their wielders.

Nick was wondering how the heck these two saved the world once before. Staraptor rolled her eyes. Pichu was just mad with Ben, not above taking side.

"Two Furrets each! I've captured my Furrets!" Ben was immediately back with a retaliation "Where are yours?!"

Summer was about to static his hair again, but all the fight left her as the one Furret she'd failed to capture before Ben's disk careened into hers whizzed past the two of them and made a break for the more defenceless Nick.

Nick screamed.

Summer yelped.

Pichu launched a rather pathetic thunderbolt that didn't even reach the target.

Staraptor aimed a Drill Peak and missed.

The TinMen waved their mind-controlling gloves.

Ben raised an eyebrow, curious about how this was going to go down.

To be frightfully honest, the following scene was so much like something that belonged in a Jackie Chan movie it almost broke the fourth wall.

But none the less, it happened.

As Nick screamed, his fist seemed to gain a life of its own and whirled around, whacking the Furret right on the nose. The Furret screeched and collapsed to the floor, knocked out, as if Nick had defeated it in one very strange battle.

The TinMen threw off their sparking mind-controlling gloves with twin yelps, glanced at each other, garbled some generic speech about about defeated and having to report to their leader immediately and buggered off to parts unknown.

"So," Summer was the first to address the elephant in the room "Has Rand been teaching you how to box or have you secretly been this badass all along?"

Nick looked embarrassed, but before he had a chance to say anything, Staraptor cut him off with:

"**_Pikachu, nine o'clock_**!"

Ben reacted a split second before Summer did. He turned to his left, aimed his styler and within two loops the pikachu that had been charging at them was subdued. It blinked up at them twice before going to join the TinMen in parts unknown.

"Oh man! I thought I had them!" a TinMen whined, slipping his clearly damaged gloves off and pouting like a child who's major scheme to get out of detention had just failed.

Summer narrowed her eyes - she swore she'd seen this grunt somewhere before.

"Aulis!" A TinWoman charged our from behind the corner "What are you doing?!"

"I was just trying to delay the rangers!" the TinMan, Aulis, insisted.

Aulis, why did that name sound so familiar?

"Rangers?!" The TinWoman turned her head, saw the rangers and gasped. Her hands flew to her waistband where all the TinMen and TinWomen seemed to be storing their gloves these days, but came up empty. "Darn it! I gave my gloves to Brianna!"

"Ah" was the Aulis' stumped reply, accompanied by a nod and a ducked head. He honestly looked a bit like Nick whenever Nema walked into a room and started ranting.

"Wait a minute" the TinWoman realised, staring at Aulis' smouldering gloves lying on the ground. Her eyes, now red with burning fury, rounded on Aulis. "YOU LOST TO THEM!"

"Hey, I tried!" Aulis insisted "You get brownie points for trying, you know. Besides," he floundered a bit as he tried to come up with an appreciate statement to follow the 'besides' "they're strong rangers! You know that, Ava! We faced them together at the Wireless Tower, remember?"

"Together?!" TinWoman - Ava apparently - scoffed "You ran screaming like a baby and I had to come and rescue you!"

Suddenly it clicked.

"You're the first two grunts we met at the Wireless Tower!" Summer realised, putting the pieces together "You got captured and you karate-kicked Rand to set him free."

Ava paled. "You recognise us?"

Nick muttered an: "Oh yeah", the plot of the story so far slowly coming back to him.

Ava's face suddenly darkened into a nice shade of crimson. She seized Aulis' ear and yanked his head down to yell right into his eardrum: "WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN TELLING THEM?!"

"OWWWW!" I didn't do anything wrong!" Aulis wailed, trying to free his ear that was passing through the stage of redness and was now heading towards white. "All I ever did was sign up to the make the world a better place! You saw the posters, right?! That's what they're trying to do!"

Ava roughly shook his head by the ear, ignoring his wails of pain. "Stop giving the enemy vital information, idiot!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Aulis bawled "But please, please let go of my ear!"

"I'm pretty sure Team Galactic, Team Plasma, Team Flare and probably most evil organisations used the same slogan at some point or another" Summer pointed out "I'm taking it you're not from one of the outer-lying regions then - they tend to educate about this stuff out there."

"No, no Jhoto actually" Aulis told her, and it probably would've sounded like they were having a perfectly normal conversation in a cafe somewhere if it weren't for the fact his voice had jumped up several octaves due to the acute pain in his left pinna. "Have you been there? If you're planning on going you have to see Goldenrod. Ever since they built the new—OW!"

"What did I tell you about giving the enemy information!" Ava growled at him as she jerked his auricle a little too fiercely.

Summer felt sorry for the guy. He seemed nice for a grunt. Maybe he'd reform like that guy on Faldera Island.

"Well well, what do we have here?"

Abruptly, Aulis and Ava froze as a third figure stepped out from behind some of the stacked crates. She was a good deal taller than them with bubblegum-pink hair held in two small bunches and equipped with a leather jacket and dark-green skin-hugging leather trousers with boots that crawled up to her knees. She just screamed Admin and, when she thought about it, Summer recognised her as one of the people from the roof of the Wireless Tower.

"Commander Taska, sir!" Ava released Aulis' ear so they could snap to attention with a salute.

"What this, all washed out by a pair of little rangers?" The admin sneered, surveying the scene was cold, calculating blue eyes. She glanced over the trio of vigilantes and her lips set in a line so thin it had to break some laws of physics to be visible.

"Ah, well...you see...no...well, maybe not."

The admin sighed the familiar long-suffering sigh Summer recognised from Leanne and her own mother. "Well, go right ahead then. Run along whilst I take care of the rangers that you were supposed to be looking our for."

Aulis and Ava hung their heads in either embarrassment or shame. "Yes, Commander, sir."

They both bolted off to the right but were brought to a halt by the admin calling out: "Oh, and find Misha and bring him to the bridge. I do believe he's supposed to be the one dealing with the icky jobs, after all."

"Yes sir!" and finally the dipshit duo exited stage right.

"So, are you it then?" Ben asked, folding her arms "Are you the boss we have to fight?"

"If you mean the boss of this level, certainly" The admin told him in a sly, conniving tone "But regrettably, I am one of a select inner circle. I," she stopped here to flick some hair out of her face like it was some sort of villain pose "am Commander Taska, TauAlpha, and the captain of this ship."

"Why did you blow up the Wireless Tower?" Summer demanded to know "And where's Lakia?"

Taska's nose wrinkled for a brief second. "Her? Oh, you don't want _her_. Dear Arceus, no. Believe me, I've just made the world a better place."

Summer saw red as she realised what Taska seemed to be implying. Freeing her capture wand, she held it out to Taska threateningly. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"

"Alright, calm down, sunshine" Taska tisked as if Summer was no more than a dead bug blocking her view through the windshield. "Now as much as I would like to continue this little banter, I have plans so I'll just leave you with this little tit-bit."

She slipped on a pair of gloves, like the TinMen's, but these ones were white instead of the usual black and didn't go on with the usual squeak of rubber. She motioned both hands into the airings spread her fingers.

The familiar sound of Toxicroaks made Summer's heart sink. Looking up she saw not one, but two Toxicroaks perched on top of the crates above their heads.

"Oh great" she groaned.

"She's getting away!" Nick yelped, pointing at Taska as she hastily fled the scene.

"Staraptor, go after her!" Ben ordered, motioning his arm in the direction Taska had fled.

With a squawk, Staraptor chased after her, but before Ben could give chase too the Toxicroaks jumped down to the floor and blocked his path.

"Fine, if that's how you want it!" he scowled, backing up so he was next to his partner again "So, Summer? How's your styler energy?"

"You kidding me?" Summer scoffed "I can take own of these guys no problem!"

"Fine, just don't crash into me again" Ben rolled his eyes, launching his capture disc.

Summer didn't retort this time, she just laughed and freed her capture disc too. "Fine, fine then. Capture on and all that!"

* * *

Our story picks up again approximately ten minutes and two pikachu styler charges after the conclusion of the battle against the Toxicroak duo.

We now find ourselves facing an air-tight door, bolted from the inside with no hope of cracking it open. This door made the combination lock at the start of the chapter look like Jolly Phonics. Above said door was a brass nameplate that read **BRIDGE**.

"And you're sure she went in there?" Summer confirmed.

"**_And locked herself inside_**" Staraptor insisted "**_Now we can't get in and she can't get out_**."

"Starve her out?" Ben suggested "Wait until she surrenders?"

"We can't just wait around for her to need a pee break - Lakia could be in trouble" Summer insisted "No, we need to break down this door."

"Well now we've settled on a course of action, any ideas on how we break it down, Miss Chairwoman?" Ben snarked, receiving a warning glare from Summer in return.

"A target clear should do it" she declared "Something tells me nothing I can do will get this door down, if the door outside—"

"Hi-yah!"

A foot accompanied by a boot smashed into the door.

The door scowled at the muddy boot impression on its lovely shiny surface, but otherwise stood tall.

"YOW!"

Summer looked over her shoulder to see. Nick hopping around, clutching his foot in agony as he hoped around.

"What were you trying to do?"

"I was trying to break it down!" Nick wailed "Nema says it makes me look less useless!"

"Not on a metal door with multiple deadbolts on it!" Summer scolded him "Who do you think you are, Jack Bauer? Sit your arse down!"

Nick promptly sunk to the floor, leaning against the wall and cradling his foot as he made little whimpering noises one might expect out of a Lillipup.

"Alright" Ben spoke up, having have enough of the road show that was Oblivia's first - and only - line of defence against evil "You want me to scan the door, see what target clear we need?"

"Probably best - at least your styler reads out the results" Summer pointed out "Mine's been in a huff with me since last night and refuses to talk to me."

Ben aimed his styler at the door and a green grid slid across it, analysing it for weaknesses. "Well maybe you shouldn't have let Nema tinker with it then."

Summer frowned. "It's thanks to Nema both of us have the Ranger Signs feature."

"Yeah, well, it's also thanks to Nema mine glitches whenever I try to adjust the brightness settings" Ben retorted with.

Before Summer could chip in with an equally snarky reply, Ben's styler beeped and cheerfully announced:

'Target requires Target Clear Crush 3. Target requires Target Clear Crush 3.'

"Your styler sounds like it's announcing a shampoo advert" Summer proclaimed, focusing on the important matters of course.

Ben didn't even frown at that statement - he didn't need to as he tapped around with his styler. "According to Elaine its to make up for my awful personality. I asked what Uncle Kellyn's excuse was."

"You met Elaine?" Summer asked "When? I haven't seen her since we left the first time."

"She visited Pueltown base when I visited my old friends from Ranger School there at Christmas" Ben explained in a mumble, clearly more for used on whatever he was doing with his styler "She nicked my styler and held it hostage for hours. She'd never see the new model before and demanded a look."

Summer puffed out her cheeks and her eyes focused on one the metal screws securing the door frame into shape. She stared at it, trying to make it pop out with just her glare and wondered if subjecting it to extreme heat would make the door just melt away or if it was fireproof.

"And I thought my Aunt Kate was unorthodox when it came to technology."

"**Oh don't worry, your Uncle Kate is weirder than that - she nearly shorted out Almia's national grid just to inspect the breakers in the Ranger Union**."

Summer bit her tongue to make sure she didn't say the following thoughts out loud. '_Forlorn, what have I told you about calling her my Uncle Kate_.'

"**What about it? She clearly wears the pants in that relationship, don't you deny it**."

"Alright, so, list of Pokémon have have Target Clear Crush 3" Ben announced, reading off his styler screen "That includes Toxicroak, Ambipom, Hitmonlee and Primeape. At least, they're the ones most likely to be found on an airship belonging to a group of crooks."

"The fact that condition's even acceptable to input as a query for the styler really says a lot about the world these days" Summer sighed "Well, we defeated a pair of Toxicroaks before, let's see if we can't find them."

Ben muttered something that was either an affirmative or an insult. Either way she didn't really care and glanced over at their support.

Nick was still whining about his foot.

Staraptor was side-eyeing Nick whilst trying to keep an eye on Ben and overall achieving at just looking plain cross-eyed.

Pichu appeared to be attempting to convert Mozart's greatest hits into ukelele tunes.

"Alright team!" she called over to them, clapping her hands in an attempt to get them looking at her and maybe a little less like the walking dead. "We're looking for an extremely dangerous and volatile Pokémon that will no doubt try to kill us all! Sounds fun, huh?"

"Can I guard the door?" Nick moaned "You know, in case she wants to take a smoke break or something."

"No" Ben told him "Staraptor, you can guard the door, please."

Staraptor sighed and looked up at Summer. "_**Please just watch his back, will you? He's going to get himself killed one of these days but I'd prefer it not to be this day**_."

'_Will do_' Summer responded mentally before picking up Pichu and marching off down the hallway. "Everyone else, move out! We have places to be, things to do and grunts to squash!"


	9. Joshua (and that other kid)

**"a— and what the heck is beeping?!"**

**"I know what a PR representative does"**

* * *

**Protector of Loyalty**

**Chapter Nine - Joshua (and that other kid)**

When the commanders and the admins had first been established, one of the first orders they'd been given was to report to an unsuspecting conference room in Vermillion City and complete two tasks.

The first was to come up with a name for themselves.

This seem rather simple, but anyone who has had to come up with a team name before will know that that is the most complex part of the task by far, with trying to get everyone to agree to your eventual team name getting a well-earned second place.

It had been a long, arduous six hours filled with shouts, punches, a broken window, bulbs blows and a shoe thrown, amongst names thrown into the pot that ranged from the 'The Butlins Brigade' to 'Daath Vader's Army', but in the end they came to the conclusion 'to hell with it, they could jolly well decide on a team name _after_ they'd taken over the world, and by that point they might not even need one.

(The name TinMen was one that had never even come in discussion and if it had that person who had suggested it may have found their rotting corpse located in the corner of the unsuspecting conference room)

And that brings us to the second task: name the worst things in the known world that everyone would like removed from existence after the unnamed group dominated the world.

Taska had nominated cabbage. Personally she felt the green cultivated plant was an abomination against society and any parents who forced their spawn to eat it should be murdered brutally _twice_. Misha had suggested Starbucks, but that was deemed too useful because if they could create a mind-controlling drug to go in the coffee they would have half the world as their mind-slave army. Rohoneigh had taken a while to decide but eventually claimed everything containing the word 'twilight' ought to be burnt, something that was hotly debated by the rest of the table.

But all of them were wrong. So, so wrong.

Pokémon Rangers were most certainly the most awful, horrible, repulsive abominations that ever walked the Earth.

Securing the wheel lock in place, she leant against the door with an agonised groan. Hated running. _Loathed_ running, in fact. And those Arceus-damn rangers now had her cornered.

Damn them. Damn them all to Giratina's Realm.

And where was Misha? He was the one supposed to be in charge of security!

Speaking of Misha, his Growlithe was awake in the corner. The puppy Pokémon shot her a _look_. It was look that made Taska shudder at how much it reminded her of Their Leader.

Speaking of the Their Leader...

"HyakuJûRoku, this is—"

That was it, she'd had it.

Taska slammed the microphone button down so hard she swore she heard the plastic casing crack.

"Arceus dammit Winlute, this had better be worth it or I swear to Mew I'll climb right through this microphone and strangle you with your own tongue!"

There was a pause after she said this, in which the reality of who she'd just spoken to in that manner began to sink in.

Still, she didn't regret it. He needed someone to call him out every now and again before his head got so big it couldn't fit through the door.

"Well, I was about to say it's about time you grew a pair but if you had I'd personally be concerned."

Taska seethed, breathing deeply through her teeth to prevent herself from exploding with rage.

"So, don't suppose you've got a hit on that scan you were ordered to do, do you?"

"NO!" Taska yelled "You moronic jerk, you know I only started that bleeding scan like _ten minutes_ ago and what were you expecting, a— and what the heck is beeping?!"

Taska's whole head swung so fast she almost got whiplash as she glared at...the blip blinking on the scanning screen.

No. Way.

For more than a minute, Taska could say nothing. She just stared at the little blip on the screen as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Actually, scratch that, she couldn't.

Five years of searching and in their first scan in Oblivia they'd located it in under ten minutes.

"I'm judging by silence you've found something."

Unable to turn her head back, Taska blindly fumbled for the microphone button again.

"Affirmative. It appears the subject has returned to its origin" she replied in dazed tone "We've located it, over."

"That's great news HyakuJûRoku - I'll send RhoOmega over there now, over."

"Confirmed, over and out" Taska released the button again, closing the microphone link, still staring at the scanning screen in utter disbelief "Huh."

* * *

Pichu had moved on from Mozart and was now onto either Bach or Beethoven.

To be honest, Mozart sounded better on the ukulele.

"And would you look at that, another locked door" Ben sighed, jiggling the handle just to be on the safe sides. "What are the odds there's nothing behind this one either?"

"I'm not kicking it down" Nick told him immediately, taking a step back as if to prove his statement.

"Well we'll never know because I'm not blasting this one down" Summer informed him, moving on to the next door along the unremarkable airship corridor "I'm getting sick of blasting doors open. Why can't we have something more original like—"

Click.

The door swung open inwards.

"Like an unlocked door?" Ben suggested.

"Well, that makes for a nice change of pace" Summer commented, peeking her head inside "And no TinMen this time. Wonderful. Everyone in then."

The rag tag team of two humans, one psychic being and a Pichu playing Beethoven entered the room, shutting the door behind them incase anyone walked past and saw them. They were running out of pikachus to charge their stylers.

"Welcome to the brig" Summer declared "Let's throw Ben in it until he cheers up a bit."

Most of the room appeared to be taken up by a steel container so enormous calling it a 'crate' could be considered a crime. It was reinforced in every way possible to the point to the words 'damn impenetrable' sprung to mind whenever anyone laid eyes upon it.

It certainly could've belonged to Alcatraz in some other life.

"Ha ha" Ben grunted, folding his arms "What are the odds the Toxicroaks are in there?"

"With our luck, no doubt" Summer sighed, banging on the outside of the...well, crate was the wrong word. Cage?

"DON'T!" Nick shrieked "THEY MIGHT JUMP OUT AND EAT US!"

"Toxicroaks. Through reinforced steel?" Ben shot him a disbelieving look.

"NO!" Nick corrected him in a wail "ALIENS!"

"Oh for Arceus' sake" Ben rolled his eyes "We've already proved it's not aliens! It's just a bunch of crooks who are flying around Oblivia in a darn airship for any dastardly reason between opening a portal to the Distortion World to smuggling recreational drugs! There are no aliens, so will you drop the matter already!"

Nick grabbed the lid of a small metal crate leaning up against the wall and held it up in defence from the angry teenager.

Summer was grateful Nick didn't yelp, because if he had, she wouldn't have heard the knocking from the other side of the steel wall.

"Wait!" Summer shouted, holding one hand up as a warning to the boys and knocking again with the other one.

Sure enough, a faint knock was returned.

"There's someone inside!" Summer declared.

"ALIENS!"

"Shut up Nick!"

Pichu squeaked in alarm, waddling over to the steel wall and bleating frantically: "Pichu! Pichu!"

"We gotta break this door down!" Summer declared, facing down the steel submarine-esque door with steely determination (The pun was completely intentional).

"Or we could just open it" Ben suggested, walking over to the wheel handle.

Creak!

Creeeeeeak!

Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!

No, that wheel wasn't going to budge, was it.

Ben coughed awkwardly and sidled out if the way. "Alright, yeah, you do your thing."

Summer's "thing" was shooting a flamethrower as thin as a laser beam at the door, cutting a shape from it. The shape all the spy movies declare it must be was a perfect circle, but Summer's circle was so far from perfect it wasn't even a circle. When she was finished the 'blob' that dared to masquerade as a circle didn't even have ends that joined up.

Awkwardly, Summer blasted the deadly flamethrower-laser beam at the door at join the two ends up.

The 'blob' shape finally separated from the rest of the door and fell outwards.

"Your Uncle Kellyn really didn't teach you to use those powers properly, did he?" Ben sighed exasperatedly.

"Maybe it's me - I don't like them very much" Summer shrugged "They're all—"

But she was prevented from finishing by something silver leaping out of the newly-formed hole with a cry of glory:

"**_HOME FREE_**!"

Nick wailed louder than he had at any point that day and ran as if his life depended on it.

"Nick! Come back!" Ben shouted after him "Someone 'll hear you!"  
But Nick was still running for his life. "Get this Tasmanian Tiger away from me!"

"Nick, it's just a Flareon!" Summer called after him "Just a very funny-coloured one!"

"**_We have been rescued by a mental society_**" the not-exactly shiny Flareon proclaimed, tilting it's shaggy silver head at Nick who was attempting to climb the door in a fruitless effort to escape (apparently he didn't realise all he needed to do was pull the door and it would open).

"Not exactly" Summer told him "We're rangers. Those two," she gestured at Ben and Nick "they're the mental ones."

"**Speak for yourself**" Forlorn scoffed, chipping in so suddenly Summer jumped and inwardly wondered if there was a television in her head that could explain where he'd been all this time "**You're psychic being with a voice her head**."

Summer winced. "No, no you're right. We are a mental society."

As if cued, something tugged on a lock of her hair so hard it almost fell out.

"PLATES INCOMING!" Summer yelled automatically, warning her comrades of the inevitable fleeing they'd have to do and had done more times than she wanted to think about. She whirled around, yanking her styler out of its holder, ready to face whatever ghost was going to throw china at them this time around.

"**Speaking from experience, that's very alive for a ghost**."

"Hi" Summer smiled, hurriedly recovering from her shock. She examined the small girl donned in various shades of purple purple who looked strikingly like little Hope, the familiar orange eyes and silver hair held up in a ponytail telling Summer right away who she was. "Lakia, right?"

Her knee caps were saved by Pichu, who jumped onto the little girl's leg to force it to the ground before she was kick Summer with those wicked-looked Converse.

"Whoa, hey, watch it!" Summer yelped "We're rangers!"

Lakia's glare didn't ease up. "You don't look like rangers."

"Are you serious?" Ben shot her a deadpan look "What rock have you been living under?"

"I don't live under a rock!" Lakia proclaimed "I live in Tilt Village in Oblivia with my Mamie and my little brother!"

"Yes, we met your brother - Hope, right?" Summer told her in an attempt to placate the child. "He and Icarus were the ones who told us you'd been kidnapped. We're here to bring you back home."

"**And play whack-a-mole with an evil organisation outpost to make ourselves look good whilst we're at it**" Forlorn then added on "**But don't worry, that's only the side mission**."

As Lakia couldn't hear Forlorn, she relaxed a bit and unfurled her fists, but didn't stop glaring up at Summer. "Is he okay? Hopey, is he okay? Did they hurt him?"

"No, he's at home with your mother" Summer answered in as delicate a tone as she could muster up.

Lakia finally relaxed fully. She crossed over to the hole again and called inside: "It's okay! You can come out now! They're not assassins! They're two rangers and some other guy!"

It took a while, and Summer felt rather like a cat trying to reassure a mouse to come out of hiding. But eventually, _something_ stepped out of the shadowy depths on the other side of the door like Giratina emerging from the Distortion World or something.

What stepped out could be described in a few words: Boy. About seven, maybe eight. Long blond hair. Blue eyes. All in white.

Well, not quite in white - he would've been in white had he not resembled a pig that had been lying in its own feces for a month.

At least he didn't smell.

Summer though was able to look past the general grubbiness and disarray and meet his pale blue eyes.

No white pupils, but she could feel a great aura surrounding him - power leaking out of his very veins.

Her heart sunk.

Psychic being.

Now, it wasn't that Summer was embarrassed at her heritage - in fact she was incredibly proud to be a psychic being ranger helping make a difference for both her own kind, humankind and Pokémon kind. Prejudice still lingered, but it was nothing compared to the hell her Uncle Kellyn had gone through after Operation Brighton when the news he was a psychic being got out to the media. She was grateful she had her powers and could use them to help the world.

The problem was, this wasn't just a psychic being. This was a kid psychic being - and not one like her Uncle Kellyn. This one was _born_ a psychic being, like the outlaw Lunick Kazuki was rumoured to be. These kids really were dangerous - their powers fully fledged before their wielders were. Without careful monitoring, buildings had a tendency to blow up and people got killed.

Not what she wanted to be dealing with on her first day back on the job.

Well, with any luck, he could talk.

Summer knelt down in front of the boy so they were at eye level and treated him in a voice so soft and sweet it almost gave her cavities. "Hi there! My name's Summer! What's your name?"

What ensued was a staring contest that Summer lost.

"**Me thinks no talkie.**"

'_Me thinks you need to go die in a hole_' Summer growled back in her mind, and she would've stamped her foot had she been standing and less mature than she was.

"**No holes in your mind or heart, thankfully. So looks like I'm staying put**" Summer could literally _feel_ Forlorn smirking "**Besides, been there - didn't really agree with me.**"

"**_Who are you talking to_**?" The Flareon was staring at me like...well I'm pretty sure he knew I was crazy already so that wasn't it.

'_The voice that lives inside my head_' Summer was tempted to shoot him a glare, but she'd worked out that people tended to get weirded at when she started making faces at Pokémon for no apparent reason '_Deal with it_.'

"Is he mute or deaf?" Ben questioned.

"He doesn't talk at all - he just stares" Lakia answered but didn't really answer the question.

"Is he ghost?!" Nick shrieked.

"Nick, I'm not going to dignify that question with a response" Summer rolled her eyes and unclipped her ranger badge, holding it out to the kid as she returned her voice back to that sickly sweet tone that she as a nine-year-old never would have trusted on principle. "Hey, it's okay. We're rangers - see."

As a kicked Purrloin may approach an offered hand, the boy's hand crept forward at a snail's pace before he eventually took Summer's badge in both hands. His eyes widened ever so slightly with wonder as he ran the pads of his fingers over the grooves and bumps of the badge.

"There we go" Summer smiled on, feeling far too much like a child minder "Can I take your hand?"

When she was met with no resistance, Summer took the child's pale hand in her own and held it gently enough not to alarm but firm enough that he shouldn't let go.

"Alrighty then!" Summer declared, jumping it her feet "Let's get off this crazy airship."

Nick sagged with relief at that.

"We gotta get Staraptor first" Ben reminded her.

Summer blinked. "Staraptor?"

"My partner" Ben grumbled, getting increasingly irritated again "She's watching the bridge door in case that idiot of an admin or whatever decided she needed the toilet or something."

"Oh right!" Summer relaxed, reassured she hadn't forgotten some important plot device "Yes, we'll get her and skidadle, right?"

"Lovely plan!" Nick declared - the mere mention of getting to the end of this half-assed adventure made his heart somersault with joy.

"Can I ride on the Staraptor?" Lakia asked.

"You can ride on Latias with me if you like" I offered.

Lakia's eyes practically jumped out of her head and her face looked like she'd just heard school had been declared illegal. "LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!"

"_**Oh yeah**_!" The Flareon cheered, though Summer wasn't quite sure why he was cheering. Maybe he was a Latias fan. Or maybe he was just glad to be free of that cage.

With Lakia clinging on her elbow and the psychic being holding her other hand, Summer left with room with happiness in her stride. "Off we pop then!"

"Stop sounding British" Ben complained, then added under his breath but just loud enough for Summer to hear "I knew I shouldn't have let you watch My Fair Lady."

Forlorn scoffed. "**Amen, man. Amen.**"

* * *

Growing up, Summer had been a rather unusual child. So it probably goes without saying that her favourite Disney movie was the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Summer loved the movie - in fact every time Ben and Murph came over for sleepovers she forced them to sit through it whilst she sung along to every song and caused Disney movies to be banned on movie nights at the Ranger Union.

However Quasimodo had nothing on this guy.

They were harmlessly running down one of the monotonous grey corridors (apparently these TinMen were so broke they couldn't afford to paint their airship) with Lakia singing that "Hi ho!" song from Snow White, the Flareon joining in (it had neglected to give anyone its name still), Forlorn attempting to make a three-part harmony and Pichu backing them up on the ukulele, though his tune still sounded suspiciously like a badly-converted Mozart piece.

Next thing they knew, someone out of the Walking Dead swung down from absolute nowhere and brought them to a screeching halt.

Emphasis on the screeching.

Summer calmed her racing heart as she felt Nick and Lakia leech onto her arms and the Flareon and Pichu grab onto her legs in terror. Forlorn started yelling "**Aye aye aye!**" over and over again and even Ben looked vaguely repulsed. The kid didn't even react - kinda like Uncle Kellyn throughout the whole ride that one time he was forced to take her and Ben on a roller-coaster.

"Hello rangers!" the new guy grinned.

"I'm not a ranger!" Nick wailed "They are!"

Ben handled the situation was calm and diplomacy: "Get out of our way you freak!"

"**Yeah! You freak!**" Forlorn joined in.

'_Forlorn, that's not nice_' Summer scolded him in her head '_You don't call people freaks._'

But a freak he was. Hunched forward just enough to resemble a question mark, blond hair that like looked like he had made pouring bleach onto it part of his daily routine and blue eyes that were just too blue not to give you the creeps. And those tattoos - though they may not be tattoos as Summer was certain some of it ran over his eyeball so she had no idea what it was actually - that resembled ancient scripture, running up his hands and into the sleeves of what appeared to be a strange poncho that doubled as a cloak, then climbing up his neck and across his face up into his hairline. There was something morbid about that scripture - something that stank of death.

"Freak? That not very nice" the...well...freak objected, feigning hurt "After all, I am Misha Gankiewicz! Fifth admin of...well we haven't got a name yet, but according to rumour someone's started calling us the TinMen. I'm quite fond of Team Death Star personally."

"_Fifth_?!" Summer demanded "How many of you guys are there?!"

"Well, not including that one blond guy who thinks he's a robot, five" Misha - if that was indeed his name, at least it made more sense than Taska - explained for them "But they only sent two of us up to this lovely airship so you don't have to worry about running into anyone else any higher than grunt level."

"You're being awfully helpful" Ben commented.

"_Maybe it's a good sign_?" The Flareon suggested.

"Well I run the PR for our slightly unusual organisation" Misha told them "In other words I stay behind the scenes, don't really fight and explain what we do to the general public to prevent mass hysteria. It's in my job description to be helpful."

"I know what a PR representative does" Summer rolled her eyes "I have a good friend who's training be one."

"Oh goodie!" Misha grinned "That means we can get it the I'M GOING TO **KILL** YOU! part of the conversation, right?"

Summer tightened her grip on the children's hands as Pichu's death-hold on her leg proceeded to start cutting off circulation. "Are you going to kill us?"

Misha puffed out his cheeks and looked like he was considering it before he declared: "Nah. I'm anti-violence. Taska usually takes care of that sort of thing; but since she's all locked up in the bridge and won't come out for love no money..."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "So you're just going to let us go?"

"PLEASE!" Nick wailed, dropping to his knees in some sort of begging or bowing position.

Misha pursed his lips today before declaring: "You rangers are cool - you scared Taska more than Winlute ever did. You guys get to go."

Next he looked down at Nick. "Yeah, you guys can take him too."

Then he turned to the Pokémon. "I got my Growlithe. Don't need you guys."

Next was Lakia. He burst into a grin. "My little buddy! You go home and tell your friends and family all nice things about us! We're trying to save the world, remember!"

Lakia stared at Misha like he had two heads.

Finally Misha's eyes settled on the boy. They lit up with recognition more so than when he saw Lakia.

"Joshy! There you are!" He beamed, holding his arms out, as if in a hug.

The child ducked behind Summer, peeping out from behind her with a little tremble.

"His name's Josh?" Summer asked. Knowing the kid's name would probably help locate his family, and since the kid wasn't talking they probably should do themselves a favour and ask someone here.

"Our little Joshua!" Misha grinned, as if they were at a fair and he was the clown which, with that face, he possibly could be. "Come give Uncle Misha a big hug!"

Joshua abruptly ripped his hand out of Summer's grip and moved to hide behind Ben. Ben didn't really reacted beyond annoyance at the fact they were in fact having this conversation in the first place instead of kicking Misha's butt and escaping. But that was okay, Ben seemed permanently annoyed with life nowadays.

"Why did you kidnap me?!" Lakia demanded, somewhat out of the blue. Maybe Joshua's act of fear had got her brain stirring again, or her temper if nothing else.

"For Joshy of course!" Misha grinned unnervingly, like it was the most obvious thing on the planet. "His light was dying, stuck in here all by himself. And without his light, his powers shrivel away. So, since we need that light, I suggested we get Joshua a playmate. Winlute loved it! Taska didn't though - why does she have to be such a jerk about things anyhow?"

At least three people, one Pokémon and one disembodied spirit living inside Summer's head began to formulate questions about Joshua's so called 'light' and what these TinMen needed it for, but Misha's ramble hadn't finished yet.

"Well, Joshy, sorry but I can't let you leave with these guys. How 'bout you hang with me instead? I was about to break out the doughnuts."

In response, Joshua stepped out from his hiding place behind Ben, raised his palm and unleashed something even more deadly than that wind tunnel from Inuyasha: a laser beam that would've made George Lucas proud. The white beam of photons and other science-y stuff incinerated a few strands of Misha's self-proclaimed "lovely" blond hair as it whizzed past him and hit a fluorescent light.

Summer was in shock. Lakia was in shock. Nick whimpered. Forlorn whistled in appreciation. The Flareon and Pichu looked rather impressed. Ben shock Summer a look that clearly said: "Were you planning on telling us he was a psychic being?"

"So that's how it's going to be, eh?" Misha folded his arms and looked put out - not the normal look for someone who's just almost been impaled by a laser beam. "You wanna go with them."

Joshua just glared at Misha as hard as his little body could, with was probably the most facial expression Summer had seen on his face since they'd met.

Misha sighed dejectedly, "I'm not supposed to let you out, but if you wanna go with them, I think a field trip would do you good. You've been stuck in here far too long, and we don't really need you until we can figure out where you ended up chucking that thing."

Joshua didn't outwardly react, beyond softening his glare, but Summer felt the tense air that seemed to hand over him like a shawl change - replaced by a feeling of relief, joy and excitement.

"So, as I promised—" Everyone froze as Misha pulled what looked like an electronic door opener from the pocket of his board-shorts (they may've been board-shorts - the poncho made it hard to tell).

"What are you doing?!" Summer demanded.

Misha looked at her a bit strangely. "I'm doing as I promised. I'm letting you go."

Everyone sagged with relief.

"Well that's good" Ben told him "Now if we can just get my Staraptor—"

Before Ben could finish, Misha pressed something on the door opener.

And abruptly, the floor panel beneath their feet swung open, revealing the clouds and ocean below, and they began plummeting through the sky towards their untimely deaths.

Lakia screamed.

Nick wailed.

Ben cursed. A lot.

Forlorn laughed hysterically.

The Flareon yelled "**_GERONIMO_**!"

Pichu screeched.

Joshua was all like meh.

Summer groaned and put her head in her hands. Plummeting through the sky towards her untimely death was getting repetitive.


End file.
